Don't startle the Witch
by Aporoid
Summary: Witch hunting has been known throughout history, going to different places and time. But when a witch sends Madoka, Mami, Sayuka, and Homura to Savannah, Georgia, they need to learn how to trust new faces to survive a bigger threat. Zombies.
1. Chapter 1

Don't startle the witch chapter 1

"Mami," Kaname Madoka said, her small pale hands quivering, her pink eyes, similar to the color of her hair; searching the area around her.

"What is it, Madoka?" Tomoe Mami questioned, her hands pre-occupied by a magical musket, stopping her forward walk.

"Where are we going, exactly?" Madoka asked, noting the extreme lack of any people around, despite it being what would be a busy shopping mall, especially at noon.

"We can't survive forever by staying in one place." Mami explained, her golden hair moving around with every head movement, which were plentiful in area examining.

"Hey Mami, what's this?" Madoka asked, checking a bright orange poster on a nearby wall.

"Report the sick. Signed CEDA." Mami read.

"Report the sick?" Madoka asked. "Are the people sick?"

"I'm not sure if they are, or who CEDA is, but lets keep a steady defense, as just in case." Mami said, slowly walking forward, searching every dark corner and crevice.

"New one got bit, right?" Went a man in a white suit, speaking to a group of 3 others. "Isn't that how this works?"

"I didn't." Went a younger man with black hair, a baseball cap snug on his head, a small pistol in his hands.

"My friends call me Coach." Went the third man, a larger man, a darker skin than the rest of the group. "I guess y'all can do the same."

"Good work out there, Coach." Went the last of the four, a young woman with fairer skin and a bright pink t-shirt. "Name's Rochelle. You?"

"Names Nick." Went the man in the suit. "Don't bother learning it, I'm not sticking around long."

"Dude, not cool." The younger man in the cap said. "M'name's Ellis. Some people call me Ell, but I prefer Ellis 'cause Ell kinda sounds like a girl's name… If you wanna call me Ell though, I don't care…"

The elevator the group was riding in quickly filled with smoke as they reached the bottom of the burning hotel, a wild blaze in action on the other end of the door.

"I got a bad feeling whatever's gonna be out there sure ain't gonna be friendly." Ellis said, jamming his fingers into the locked elevator door. He pushed them open and reacted as fresh fire heated up his entire body, looking down, and then grinning.

"Guns!" He said, picking up a small submachine gun. "That's a sight for sore eyes."

Everyone picked up one of the four Submachine guns and began firing into the blaze. This was week 2 after initial infection. Zombie appocolypse had come true, but not everything had a strict diet of human flesh. Ellis, Rochelle, Coach, and Nick were one of four survivors, one of few. They hadn't seen a human that didn't feel like eating them for days. Life was difficult, but was about to get much more complex.

Colorful lights flickered and several fun noised faded from several carnival machines around Miki Sayuka, a thin, blunt baseball bat grasped in her hands, her blue hair blowing the wind, her pale school outfit partially coated with blood. This blood was not hers, as she had encountered several monsters on her way. Zombies, so the world taught society, were everywhere. Sayuka stepped carefully, making sure not to alert any more zombies than she needed to.

"Madoka?" She pondered through a telekinetic link. No response.

"Mami?" She asked again. Still no response.

She reached into her skirt pocket, pulling her cell phone out, checking the signal. No signal was out here, as the nearest phone line had collapsed to the ground.

"This is hopeless…" She said, dropping her phone back into her skirt pocket. She continued onward only to trip over something hard on the ground. She got up and looked over, and it seemed like a human body, except half of it's right arm was missing, revealing severed bone underneath the bloody sleeve. Sayuka swallowed hard and tried not to gag from the smell of the decomposing body. She quickly tried to back up from it, only to stumble once again. She tried to refocus her sights away from it, but she failed to. But something bright red caught her attention from the dead body's other hand, which was still there. It appeared to be a bright red first-aid kit with two adjustable straps expanding off the side. She quickly snagged with and looked inside. There was a couple bottles of some sort, about 3 feet of gauze and bandages, and some medical tape.

"Sure. I'll take it." she said, adjusting the straps to fit her small body shape, resting on her back like a backpack. She then slowly began to continue examining Whispering Oaks, A truly Dark Carnival in itself. But the ominous feelings did not stop, as shutters flew up Sayuka's body, shivering her to the very bone,by a simple noise. The echoing tap of a footstep. Sayuka's grip tightened around the hilt of her bat, as she wanted to move, but her legs were paralyzed.

"Who's there?" Sayuka asked, her deep blue eyes darting in every direction, until a shape emerged from the darkness ahead.

"You may lower your weapon." Said a female voice, the footsteps becoming clearly loader and sharper, such as the tap of a high heel shoe. Akemi Homura appeared from the darkness, her purple and white outfit the only thing separating her from sheer darkness, her hair and pantyhose, black as night. Even the long, black, M-16 assault rifle she held in her hands was clouded by the shadows.

"Oh, perfect, just the person I wanted to be stuck with. Homura." Sayuka said, sarcastically.

"Say what you must," Homura spoke, her voice never seeming to change emotion. "But you cannot survive on your own."

"How do you know that?" Sayuka asked.

Homura looked at her with blank, hollow eyes and grabbed a hold of her shirt collar, dragging her nearly 4 inches backwards, just enough to dodge a massive charging zombie, whom was dead upon impact of a bullet by Homura.

"Lucky save." Sayuka disregarded.

"That witch was more powerful than any of the others." Homura said. "It traveled us to a separate dimension, each of us, scattered."

"You think I hadn't noticed that yet?" Sayuka said, already getting sick of Homura. Her mood quickly changed as she spoke. "So do you know where we are?"

"Whispering Oaks. An amusement park meant for all ages. Savannah, Georgia." Homura spoke.

"Georgia?" Sayuka said. "Never heard of it."

"We're far from home. We're in America."

"America, huh?" Sayuka said, with a short breath, then chuckle. "That witch had good taste. Always wanted to come here."

Homura's expression didn't change.

"Well, if it wasn't for all the guys trying to kill me, then yeah. Would have been much more enjoyable."

Homura barely blinked. She simple turned around began walking back into darkness.

"Hey! Hold up!" Sayuka shouted, and pulled a small flashlight out of her other skirt pocket. Homura was lit up by the flashlight, and she paused.

"Good idea." She said, then continued walking.


	2. Chapter 2

Don't startle the witch chapter 2

Madoka stayed close to Mami as the two walked outside the mall, the afternoon sun high in the sky.

"Mami," Madoka spoke, her hand tightly gripped around Mami's sleeve. "What do all of these posters mean?"

"The CEDA posters?" Mami questioned, still in her magical clothes.

"Mhmm." She murmured in her usual scared attitude.

"I'm not sure yet…" Mami put her arm out and stopped Madoka. "Do you hear that?"

"Hear what?"

It got louder with every step. Crying. Very obvious crying.

"You hear her?" Coach said. "Get ready to toss that witch."

"I got it." Ellis said, running out of Whitaker's gun shop with a fully loaded Spaz-12 shotgun.

"Hey, who's that over there?" Nick questioned, seeing two female shapes out in the distance, one with golden blonde hair, the other with a odd shade of pink. They were slowly walking towards a young woman with white hair and skin, her head in her hands.

"Witch!" Nick shouted. "You two over there! Don't get any closer to her!"

Madoka heard Nick in the distance and tried to pull Mami away from the young woman in the torn clothes. As soon as Mami got maybe 10 inches away, the woman's tears quickly stopped, and her blood-red eyes tore holes in Madoka's very existence. She growled very loudly and showed her long, bloody claws. Madoka quickly took Mami to the ground with a fairly successful tackle, only to see Ellis sneak up behind the witch.

"Take this!" He shouted, blasting 21 pellets at close range through the back of the witch's neck, splattering fresh blood over Madoka. The witch's red eyes went pale as she collapsed to the ground, the back of her neck wide open.

"THAT is how's it's done!" Ellis shouted with a chuckle.

"I think you're finally getting the hang of this, Ellis." Nick said.

"Gee, thanks a lot." Ellis responded, and put his hand out for Madoka. "Come on, come on, let me help y'all up."

Madoka took Ellis' hand and got up. Mami did the same.

"Thank you for your assistance." Mami said to the rest of the survivors. "My name is Tomoe Mami, but please, just call me Mami."

"Umm, you guys can call me Madoka." She said, traumatized by the witch's death.

"Well, gee. I'm Ellis, this is Coach, Nick, and this here is Rochelle. Nice to meet y'all."

"Same for you as well." Mami said, shaking everyone's hand. "My friend here is a little traumatized by what you just did…"

"The Cr0wning?" Ellis said.

"I suppose so. I'm unsure of proper dialogue here." Mami said.

"Well, neither of you look like you're from around here." Coach said, opening a 'Chocolate helicopter' candy bar, then taking a large bite of it.

"We're not. In fact, we're from the other end of the world, so we think." Mami said.

"What, y'all like plane crash survivors or something?" Ellis questioned. "'Cause if you are, that would be awesome."

"It's a long story." Mami explained.

"Long stories?" Rochelle asked, and laughed. "We're the kings and queens of long stories."

"Okay," Mami said, and took a breath. "Do you believe in magic?"

"Ooh, ooh!" Ellis said with an excited jump. "I do."

"Oh my god, he's like a five-year old. With guns." Nick said, bringing his palm to his face.

"Don't be quick to judge." Mami said, throwing her magical musket to Nick. "Try this out."

Nick did as she said and watched as a bright gold-colored bullet flew out of the gun.

"Wait," Nick noticed. "There's no loading or ejection chambers."

"Then toss it." Mami said.

"Toss it?" Nick questioned. "Like throw it away?"

"Yes. Have another." Mami said, and reached down the front of her blouse, and pulled out another musket.

"…Do they all come out of there?" Ellis questioned.

"Not all the time." Madoka finally spoke.

"Here. One for everyone." Mami said, taking off her French beret, several more muskets flying out of the hat. Everyone grabbed one and began to rethink their thoughts on magic.

"So these can only fire one shot each." Coach asked. "But you have unlimited amounts of them."

"Yes."

"Okay, I'm already liking this girl." Ellis whispered to Nick. Nick simply rolled his eyes.

"So where are y'all headed?" Coach asked.

"We're on a mission to find our friends. A witch we were fighting-" Mami started, but was interrupted by Ellis.

"Witch? Like the thing dead down there?" He asked, pointing to the thing with the blasted-open neck.

"No, a different type of witch, Ellis." Mami said. "Where we were before had witches that cast evil spells."

"Oh, that's why you said magic." Ellis noted. "I 'getcha now."

"But Madoka, me, and another companion of mine were separated through a portal in space time."

"Sounds rough." Nick said.

"It was." Madoka said. "Me and my friend Sayuka were separated, but Mami and I stayed together."

"Uh huh." Nick said. "Why doesn't Madoki have a weapon?"

"Madoki?" Mami asked. "You mean Madoka?"

"Yeah, sorry. Learning names."

"Umm, I haven't found a good weapon yet." Madoka explained.

"Then follow us." Rochelle said, leading Madoka and Mami back to Whitaker's gun shop.

"Tada." Ellis said, still marveling over the amount of guns here. One of everything, going from pistols to assault rifles, all the way to several types of shotguns.

Madoka looked around the expansive amount of shiny metal and dull wood, unsure of what to look for.

Why not start you with a pistol? Madoka thought in her head. No, she was wearing a skirt, no place for a holster. A shotgun? Too large. Submachine gun? Perfect.

"I'll take this one." Madoka said, pointing to the glass container holding the guns.

"Ah, okay." Nick said, walking around to the back.

"Finding the key?" Madoka asked, but was cut short by the noise of boot shattering glass. Nope. No key. Zombie appocolypse. Who needs them.

"Here you go." Nick said, handing Madoka the handgun-sized machinegun.

"Wait." Ellis said, holding a belt-like item in his hands, several empty loops. "You might want this."

"What is it?" Madoka asked, inspecting it.

"It's a bullet belt. You put all your bullet clips in it. Easier storage." Ellis explained, as he placed the belt around Madoka's waist.

"There. Don't wanna be awkward, tighten it all you need." Ellis said, backing away.

Madoka fastened the belt around her waist, and placed as many clips as she could into it.

"Thanks." She said with a smile.

"I'm still waiting for my cola." A older man's voice rang through the gun shop.

"Keep your pants on, Whitaker." Nick yelled up to him.

"Just get me my cola."

"Colas, hmm?" Mami asked.

"Yeah, let's just get him his stupid soda and he'll blow up the truck in the way." Coach explained.

"You mean the one we walked around?" Mami asked.

"Yeah, that one." Ellis said with a laugh.

"Lets just do it anyway." Nick scolded. "Better for someone to live than just us."

"Fine, whatever."


	3. Chapter 3

Don't startle the witch chapter 3

"Everyone grab a gas can!" Nick shouted as the elevator door opened.

"Jimmy Gibbs jr, I'm doing this for you." Ellis said, gripping his hand around a gallon of gasoline.

"Let's fill this car up." Rochelle said, passing the nearest gas can to Madoka.

The survivors realized that the race car used by famous southern racecar driver Jimmy Gibbs jr was the only way out of Liberty mall. They needed to fill up the car that was at the mall car show, and then it should have had enough gas in it to drive them all the way to zombie-free utopia, which was at the moment; New Orleans.

"First one's empty!" Madoka shouted, tossing aside the empty can.

"Coming in with second!" Ellis shouted, running towards the idle car as fast as he could.

"Second's down!" Ellis shouted, tossing the can to the ground, redrawing his grenade launcher.

"Everyone look out! Big one coming!" Mami shouted, firing several muskets in conjunction.

Nick looked up to Mami's location and his M-16 was ablaze.

"Tank!" Nick shouted to the other survivors.

"Light that mother up!" Ellis exclaimed, firing a grenade as close as he could to the massive, raw-skinned, nine-hundred pounds of pure zombie muscle.

Madoka looked up, frightened of the Tank.

"Madoka! Come on! Shoot it!" Ellis instructed, playing with a lighter, attempting to light a Molotov cocktail.

Madoka realized what was going on and drew her small machine gun. Ellis gazed over as he loaded another grenade, and watched his aim her weapon with perfect precision. He watched as she pulled the trigger once, the single, half-an-inch bullet flew throughout the air, managing to strike a gas can beside the tank, lighting up the gasoline. It exploded in a quick swoop, and the Tank stumbled off the 3rd level balcony, it's head crashing hard on the concrete. Blood soaked the floor as the team took their breaths.

Madoka's hands shivered as she realized what she did. She killed it. With one bullet. She killed it.

"You good?" Ellis asked, noticing her quivering hands, hardly holding onto her Mac 10 SMG.

"Just give me a minute…" Madoka said, her breaths unsteady.

"Sure, sure." Ellis said, watching her back, a set of twin pistols in his hands, his grenade launcher on his back.

Ellis' attention strengthened as a loud noise echoed amongst the mall.

"I hear a smoker." Rochelle said, walking by with another gas tank.

Madoka heard the Smoker's growl and her breaths got more unsteady. Madoka froze as she felt something long, wet, and slimy tangle around her body, pulling her backwards.

"Smoker's got Madoka!" Coach shouted, and searched the area around where the long, noticeable tongue of the Smoker spawned from.

The Smoker's outline became visable in te light, and Ellis fired a grenade.

Madoka felt the slimy tounge of the Smoker loosen as she began to drop towards the ground.

Madoka shut her eyes tightly, expecting to hit the ground hard.

"Oof!" She heard, and opened her eyes. She managed to land in Ellis' open arms, whom he was barely holding Madoka up with.

"What a catch." Mami said, re-tying her golden ribbon, which was about to transform into a safe trampole-like surface for her to land on. "You beat me to her.

"Yeah, just barely." Ellis agreed, placing Madoka on the ground. She stumbled after being airborne in such an odd way, looking down at her schoolgirl outfit. Ruined. Soaked in zombie blood and Smoker saliva. Her boots were burned by Spitter goo, her sleve cut open by a hunter.

"Y'all look pretty beat up, now don't you?" Coach noted, passing a bottle of what looked like perscription pain killers to Madoka.

"What are these?"

"Pills. Try them, they'll make you feel better." Nick said, passing what looked like a allergy pen to Ellis.

"Awesome, thanks for the shot."

"Well, come on, y'all!" Coach motivated. "We need to fill up this car!"

Everyone remembered their mission and each ran in different directions, scavenging for gasoline.

Mere minutes later, Ellis dove into the front seat of the car, Madoka in the passenger seat, everyone else in back.

"Woohoo! Let's punch it!" Ellis shouted, his foot pressing on the gas, hard, swerving out of the coridor and out the mall doors, killing several zombies on the way.

"N'Orleans, here we come!" Coach shouted as they rode off.

"I'm already getting sick of this place." Sayuka complained.

"Indeed. I never was one for carnivals." Homura agreed.

"Why's that? Too cheery?" Sayuka joked.

Homura didn't answer.

Sayuka swallowed hard as a long, silent growl rung throughout the empty food vendors.

"Sounds bad…" Sayuka said, her hands tight on the grip of her bat.

"Homura!" Sayuka shouted as a dark, hooded creature left at Homura at high speeds. It quickly brought her to the ground and pinned her arms and legs. Her m-16 skidded across the floor as it pounced, it's sharp claws ready to attack.

"Sayuka!" Homura shouted as the creature slashed it's claws against her face and upper chest. She felt warm blood drip down her cheek. "Get it off me!"

"On it!" Sayuka shouted, swinging her bat at an unusual angle, driving it deep into the creature's hooded face, an obvious cracking of it's skull upon impact. She hit it with such force, it quickly flew off Homura, blood expelling out of it's nose and mouth.

"Nice hit." Homura said, adjusting her dress to better cover the open area.

"No problem." Sayuka said, wiping most of the blood she could off the aluminum bat.

"So what do we call these things?"

"Zombies, as America calls them, I suppose." Homura answered.

"Zombies? Heh," Sayuka began. "Much weaker than I would of thought."

"Say what you must, as we can't survive making jokes." Homura said, picking up her assault rifle off the ground.

"Sure," Sayuka started, but was cut short by a bright red poser on the wall. "Who are the Midnight Riders?"

"A local band, it would seem." Homra said, feeling the white area of her dress turn red from absorbing her blood.

"Need a hand, there?" Sayuka asked, unclipping the first aid kit from her back.

"I suppose." Homura said, taking the health kit.

She grimaced as the alcohol-soaked bandage went over her open wounds. "There." She said, handing back the remainder of the health kit.

"Looks like it's got enough for another go." Sayuka said, checking all of the contents.

"That's good." Homura said. "Let's get going."

"Wait." Sayuka said.

"Wait?"

"Yeah, we can't just keep walking. We need a plan for this."

"Okay." Homura said, crossing her arms.

"I'm guessing that by these posters, the Midnight Riders haven't left yet." Sayuka suggested.

"And your point?"

"If we find them, and they're not zombies, we can maybe use them."

"Use them how?"

"They're a band. They must own a tour bus."

"You might be on to something for once."

Sayuka didn't bother protesting the remark, as she knew doing that wouldn't help any.

The two proceeded to continue searching the area, attempting to search down the Midnight Riders.


	4. Chapter 4

Don't startle the Witch chapter 4

"Sorry guys, I know this car is capable of making miracles happen," Ellis said, looking down the road of miles of abandoned cars. "But it sure can't drive over 20 miles of parked cars."

"Don't sweat it, man." Coach said, pulling a couple guns out of the car's trunk. "You got us this far. We can find another way to Naw'rleans."

Madoka stood next to Mami, marveling the massive assortment of parked cars.

"Jesus Christ, these cars go on for MILES." Nick said, doing the same as Madoka.

"Maybe they left 'em when they got rescued!" Coach encouraged.

"…That's one theory." Nick murmured.

"C'mon, let's get moving." Ellis said, racing forward with a shotgun.

"Ellis, wait up-" Nick started, but simply gave up. He turned towards Madoka and made a three with his fingers. "Watch this. Three."

Madoka watched Nick.

"Two."

Her attention refocused towards Ellis.

"One."

"HUNTER'S GOT ME!" Ellis shouted.

"Knew it."

Madoka quickly ran forward and shot the Hunter quickly off Ellis.

"Come on, please get up." She said, passing her hand for Ellis.

"Relax, relax. I'm all good." He said, taking Madoka's hand and nearly pulling her to the ground, with the dramatic strength difference.

The six survivors carefully walked between the cars, as they didn't know which ones had alarms still set. No reason to alert an unnecessary horde.

"Aw, yeah!" Ellis said, throwing his pistol into his holster. "Grabbin' a Chainsaw."

Madoka looked down at the small armory a fallen survivor had left behind.

"Ellis," Madoka said, nudging him to get his attention. "What's this?"

Ellis turned around to spot the pipe bomb she picked up.

"That's a pipe bomb. Light it up, and watch the best use of C4 explosives on the planet besides making awesome shapes with." He said with a laugh.

"Okay…" Madoka said, clipping the pipe bomb to her belt.

Mami walked up with the rest of the survivors.

"Whatchu' find?" Ellis asked.

"Found some boomer puke." Rochelle said.

Madoka gave a disgusted expression. She had never seen a Boomer yet, and she hadn't known of its impressive vomiting ability.

"Is that seriously?" Mami asked.

"Aw, man. A jar is no place for bodily fluids." Ellis said. Madoka nearly gagged at the sight of the neon-green liquid in the jar.

"What else?" Ellis pondered.

"Another pistol." Coach said, wielding his signature dual-pistols.

"I found these." Mami said, clipping a container of pain pills to the bottom of her corset.

"That it?" Ellis asked, before moving on.

"Looks like it." Coach said. "Let's get moving, y'all."

"Man's got the right idea." Ellis agreed.

"Hey, what're those?" Nick asked, seeing a faint light in the distance.

"Searchlights! That's the first sign of life in nearly 'hundred miles!" Ellis said, obviously happy about that.

"Road's blocked." Rochelle added, noting the turned-over semi-truck.

"Then let's cut through that motel there." Nick suggested.

"Sounds good with me." Ellis said, leading the pack. "Let's go."

"Whispering oaks! I used to love that place as a kid!" Coach said, noticing a billboard advertising the amusement park.

"Great. Now we can die there, as adults." Nick said, obviously not happy about the idea of the carnival.

"I'll snipe." Rochelle said, picking up one of a couple hunting rifles nearby.

"Snipers?" Madoka thought, noticing the lack of full clips for her SMG. Incredibly accurate. Worth a shot. Or several. To the head.

"I'll try one of these." Madoka said, picking up one of the remaining rifles.

"You ever snipe before?" Nick asked.

"Never. Today's the first time I handled a gun, too." Madoka admitted, blushing a little.

"Oh, speaking of which." Nick started. "I'm technically not legally allowed to own a gun. Hope everyone's okay with that."

"I don't care, man. We got zombies to shoot. Who cares?" Ellis said.

"That's true." Nick said, and shrugged. "yo, Madoka."

"Yes?"

"I hope you know that gun of yours gives a pretty good kick, right?"

Madoka looked at Mami, who positioned herself with a musket in such a way, so that Madoka learned how to hold it without hurting herself.

"Thanks, Mami. Saved us a step." Rochelle said.

"No problem." Mami said, and then looked down at the egg-shaped gem in her hand, it's vibrant gold turning a dirty yellow. She quickly closed her hand around it and returned to her regular schoolgirl outfit, the same type that Madoka was wearing, minus the giant bloodstain from the Witch's Cr0wning.

"What was that?" Rochelle questioned.

"Oh, I can't stay like that forever. If I do…" She said, and paused. "Bad things happen."

"Like what type of 'bad things', exactly?" Nick questioned, Madoka and Ellis sitting back and watching, almost like watching an argument between two of your friends, wishing you had popcorn right there and then.

"It's nothing worth mentioning." Mami calmly said, and picked up the last rifle.

"Whatever." Nick said, ignoring the last couple minutes.

"Hey look, there's an exit." Coach said, pointing towards a set of stairs leading to a balcony. "Those lead around the truck."

As usual, Ellis lead, Madoka was right behind him, Mami and the other survivors behind them. Ellis climbed down the stairs and barely saw it coming, as a small, hunched over creature with a torn t-shirt and messy red hair tackled onto Ellis' back, covering his eyes with its thin hands.

"GET THIS JOCKEY OFF ME!" Ellis said, aimlessly wandering the area, going wherever the Jockey lead him.

"Don't worry! I got you! Madoka shouted, bringing the scope lens to her eye.

"Is this thing humping me?" Ellis shouted, trying his best to resist the Jockey's movements, a heavy but small zombie sitting on his shoulders. "Get it off!"

What seemed like time froze when he heard a very close sniper shot. He felt as the bullet penetrated the Jockey's skull, sending it flying off Ellis' shoulders.

Ellis refocused his vision after being temporarily blinded by the Jockey, realizing that Madoka fired, the barrel of her gun still smoking.

"Nice shot, Madoka!" They heard Nick yell from the upstairs balcony.

"Thanks!" Madoka yelled back.

"Thanks for the save." Ellis said.

"I'm getting used this this. It was nothing."

"No, that was definitely something." Ellis said. "No one here can shoot a jockey spot-on the first shot, yet alone in the face."

"Oh." Madoka said, realizing the sudden bravery she had been experiencing since she met Ellis and the other survivors.

"Well, let's get going-" Ellis said, but was cut short by something he didn't see before.

"WHOA!" Ellis shouted as he slid fast down a steep hill.

"Ellis!" Madoka shouted, running after him.

"Great, what did he get himself caught in this time?" Nick bothered to ask, bringing his palm to his forehead.

"Nick, y'all can shut up." Ellis said, sounding fairly close. Madoka looked over the hill's ledge and saw him safely on a rock, sticking out of the side.

"He's good." Madoka said, breathing a sigh of relief.

"Good god, Ellis." Nick said, annoyed.

"Don't be so quick to judge, man. We need to go this way, anyway." Ellis said, pointing down to the bottom of the hill. "Ain't no where else to go."

"Ah, what the heck." Nick said, and slid down the hill.

"Christ!" He cursed as he slid down, much faster than expected.

"Whooooa. Whoa, watch your footing, people." Coach said, sliding down.

"Geez!" Rochelle spurted out, following behind Coach.

"Mami! Madoka!" You're the only ones left up there!" Nick shouted.

Ellis looked up at Madoka. "Come on, slide here. Rock's pretty steady."

Madoka's fright become apperent once again. She closed her eyes tightly as she took a step off the safe, protected ledge, and felt herself slide down, very quickly.

"Whoa!" Ellis said, grabbing a hold of her. "Gotcha now, open your eyes."

Madoka's eyes opened wearily and slowly, only to realize she was on the rock next to Ellis.

"What a catch, right?" Madoka joked.

"Fairly good on my part. Mami, you're next." Ellis responded.

Mami simply looked down a slid down the steepness of the hill so gracefully, everyone else felt like they did horrible sliding down.

Ellis helped Madoka down the slope and saw the searchlights get brighter.

"We're getting' closer, now." Ellis said, looking up. "Up that hill."

Everyone did was commanded and at the top of the hill was their shiny, overly chaotic; even with no living people, amusement park.

"Whispering oaks! We made it." Ellis said, pointing to a room with a massive steel door hooked to the door hinges.

"Safe room ahead! Everyone inside!" Nick instructed.


	5. Chapter 5

Don't startle with Witch chapter 5

"Midnight riders?" Sayuka said, with a laugh. "I figured they wouldn't show up."

"It seems they already fled the area." Homura agreed. "They left all of their airborne explosives."

Sayuka looked over at Homura with a confused expression. "'Airborne explosives'? You mean fireworks?"

"If you would like to get technical, then yes."

"Why did I get the absolute honor of getting trapped at some lousy carnival with you?" Sayuka asked, extremely obvious amounts of sarcasm behind her voice.

"Sarcasm won't get you anywhere." Homura said, flicking her hair back with her hand.

"Gee, I never would have guessed that." Sayuka said with a disappointed sigh.

"There's no use staying at this stage." Homura said, turning around and walking offstage.

"I suppose not." Sayuka agreed, inspecting the very dented baseball bat she owned, then followed her.

"I ever tell y'all about the time me and my buddy Keith tried making our own fireworks? Well, neither of us knew nothing' about chemistry, but y'see, Keith figures, what the heck, 'Gasoline burns', right?" Ha. Third degree burns over ninety percent of his body. People in the next city over were calling to complain about the smell of burnin' skin, oohh man…" Ellis said, his infamous 'Keith stories'. Madoka could of sworn the dude was invincible.

"Ellis? Is now the best time?" Nick asked, itching the side of his neck.

"Oh, okay." He agreed, shutting up as he loaded his Tactical shotgun.

"You two doin' alright?" Coach asked Madoka and Mami.

"I'm fine." Mami said, pulling the lever back on her brand-new military-grade sniper rifle.

"I think I'm doing all right for now…" Madoka said, her hands gripping on to a long Katana. It was clean and has yet to touch the skin of any living thing. As brave as she felt around Ellis, she didn't have the guts to decapitate anything, while Ellis simply ran out there with a Chainsaw. Obviously he was having a better time than her.

"All right, y'all. What's the plan?" Ellis asked the rest of the group.

"I vote that we start the midnight riders finale. That's all sorts of fireworks, smoke pots, spotlights and stuff. That chopper pilot can't miss it." Coach said, remembering the helicopter that passed overheard nearly minutes ago.

"So wait, we're gonna set up to rock, and then fight zombies?" Ellis asked, with a grin. "THIS IS THE BEST DAY OF MY LIFE!"

Madoka gave a soft laugh at Ellis' enthusiasm.

"Madoka!" Went a female voice, loud in her head.

"Sayuka?" Madoka questioned in her mind.

"Oh, thank god I found you. I don't know how much longer I could survive with ms. Gloom-and-doom." She responded. "Meet me and Homura at the midnight riders' stage."

"Yo, Madoka?" Nick asked, stapping his fingers in front of her face. Her awareness re-steadied and she light blushed.

"Sorry. Just had a thought." Madoka said, and looked at Mami. Mami nodded, as she understood what she meant.

"Well, lets get going towards that stage!" Coach said, opening the safe room door out.

The squad of six moved out, watching basically every direction at once. Madoka froze when she got hit by something watery and thick, her vision clouded, the smell horrifying.

"BOOMER!" Ellis shouted, two seconds two late, as the boomer had already exploded onto Madoka.

"What is this stuff?" Madoka asked, plugging her nose from the smell, and wiping her eyes with what whatever part of her outfit wasn't soaked with vomit.

As her vision cleared, she nearly vomited herself when she realized what she was covered in.

"Don't worry, that comes off." Ellis said, as calmly as he could as he revved up his Chainsaw.

"What's the Chainsaw needed for?" Madoka asked, noticing a the empty area they stood in.

"Boomer puke is basically yummy-yummy for the infected." Nick answered.

"That is disgusting!" Madoka tried to shout, but her voice cracked and stopped as a large swarm of zombies were approaching.

"Stay behind me!" Ellis forewarned, keeping his Chainsaw in a revved position. Madoka watched as he effortlessly tore hundreds of zombies into shreds.

"DIE, DIE, MY DARLINGS! DIE, DIE, DIE!" He shouted over the revving of the Chainsaw.

Madoka watched the boomer bile did as expected and slid off her clothes. The stench remained, however.

"You good back there?" Ellis asked, Madoka shaking.

"Yeah, boomers ain't no fun." He said with a half-laugh.

Madoka crumbled to the ground almost like an improperly-build structure made of legos. It took only one little tap to topple them. Ellis sat down next to her, using hand signals to deploy the rest of the survivors ahead.

"Y'all all right?" Ellis asked, watching tears stream down Madoka's face.

"I don't even know how this happened. One day, I'm having fun at my school. Next day, I'm a mass murderer." Madoka sobbed.

"Gee, they're kinda required to die, here…"

"They're still people."

"People or not, those who aren't good to one don't deserve to be bad to another."

Madoka didn't expect something serious like that to come out of Ellis' mouth.

"But come on, let's get you up." Ellis said, putting his hand out for her to help up.

"Thanks, Ellis." Madoka said, and wiped her face, the tears cleaning the boomer bile off.

"Yo, Ellis!" Nick shouted. "Found some newcomers!"

"New people?" Ellis wondered.

"Sayuka and Homura." Madoka answered.

"How do you know that?" Ellis questioned.

"A little trick of me and my friend." Madoka simply answered, not wanting Ellis to be aware of the pshycic link.

The two rounded the corner to be addressed by Sayuka first.

"Madoka!" She yelled, jumping down to ground level, her nearly-broken bat in hand. "Long time, no see."

"I can say the same." MAdoka answered.

"Who's your friend?" Sayuka asked, noticing Ellis close behind.

"Howdy. I'm Ellis." Ellis said, and put his hand out. Sayuka accepted the handshake and gazed at the hilt of the Katana Madoka owned.

"Can I use that?" She asked.

Madoka unhooked the scabbard with the sword inside it and gave it to Sayuka.

"Thanks. My bat was nearly broken." She said, and accepted the blade. "What about you, Homura?"

There was no answer. Sayuka turned around to see no one.

"Huh. I could of sworn she was just here."

"Yo, what are y'all just stading around for?" Let's get this thing started already!" Nick suggested.

"I agree with that man." Coach said. "Let's start that concert!"

"I see you're surviving this well." Said a mysterious voice from the dark of the storage room.

"It's not exactly the easiest." Homura responded. "Not exactly anything anyone's faced before, Kyubey."

The redish-pinkish eyes of the cat appeared in the faint light. It's white fur was perfectly clean.

"You appear to be unscathed. As usual." Homura joked.

"This is no time for games, Homura." Kyubey said.

"I am aware." Homura said.

"That last witch scrambled all of us here." Kyubey said, re-explaining the current problems ahead. "But even though we are in a new situation, that does not mean you can simply slack off and overuse your magical powers."

"I am aware of that, as well." She responded.

"But obviously Madoka and Mami are using unknown weapons to the Puella Magi."

"Yes, Kyueby." Homura said, pulling her empty assault rifle off her back and tossed it to the incubator. "They're called guns."

The pink-eyed white cat looked down at the weapon and then back at Homura.

"But they are underaged for using proper weapons, based on American laws." Homura said, but then rethought the sitation. "But yet again, none of us are supposed to be. But we're in a desperate scenario."

Kyeuby did what everyone believed was think of what was said, and looked up at Homura.

"Neither you, nor the Puella magi are supposed to be here."

"We're all aware of that at the moment."

"And you were in full information of the band's dismissal?"

"The Midnight Riders fled the scene two hours ago, right on time." Homura answered, aware of how the present time's outcome led out.

"But you went with Sayuka anyway?"

"Yes, I'd prefer to keep her with Madoka, for personal means."

"Reasonable enough of you."

Both Kyubey and Homura's attention was crushed when the pre-recorded concert by the Midnight riders started, blasting a couple flares into the air.

"You know what is going to happen next. Survive the concert, and board the helicopter." Kyubey said, and vanished.

Homura turned around and froze time, just long enough to sneak onstage.

"Rides over! Ride's over! Gonna ride her, on the Midnight.. RIDE!" Blasted the song onstage.

Homura watched as Madoka and Sayuka bought back to back, one slicing apart zombies with a fresh Katana, the other doing the same with the other's baseball bat.

"Hunter!" Rochelle shouted, managing to shoot the black blur out of the sky.

"Ro, that was a nice shot." Coach complimented, reloading his Spaz-12 shotgun.

"Thanks." Rochelle said, following Madoka and Sayuka's strategy, standing back-to-back.

Ellis fired another grenade from his launcher, grinning happily when the rain of zombie guts flew throughout the air, Nick standing besides him, throwing a Molotov cocktail.

Homura's eyes quickly scanned the area, no one realizing her existence at the moment.

"We got a Charger!" Nick shouted, realizing the massive one-armed zombie's position. "Madoka! Look out!"

Madoka froze when the Charger sprinted towards her, Sayuka pre-occupied with small zombies. Madoka watched as the Charger's head exploded into a bloody, red mist, the creature nearly a foot in front of her.

"Who?" Madoka asked.

"Not sure." Mami responded, back into her magical form, firing off muskets.

Homura looked down at the silenced sniper in her hands, barrel still smoking. But her attention was quickly averted by a large moving object in the distance.

"We got a Tank! Hold steady!" Mami ordered.

"I've got this." Homura said, and disappeared, reappearing behind the Tank, a fully-loaded M-60 in her hands.

"Tank." She said, pulling the trigger, slowly. "Die."

The Tank stumbled from the massive rain of bullets against it's back and head, hundreds of bullet shells littered the floor around Homura's feet. The Tank eventually collapsed, nearly 600 separate holes throughout its body and head, blood staining the concrete steps of the park seats. Homura tossed aside the empty Bullet belt and looked down at the stage. Her and Madoka's eyes met, a very long second of utter awe.

"Homura…" Madoka trembled.

"Do not worry, Madoka." Homura said, quietly, quiet enough for no one connected to Kyubey to hear her thoughts. "I'm here."

The next song in the Midnight rider's album began, it's heavy rock anthem strong around the accoustics of the stage and seats.

"Aw, yeeeeeeah. I LOVE this song!" Coach shouted over the microphone.

Homura and Madoka's long gaze was interrupted by a zombie scratching Madoka's left shoulder, her not noticing the current threats around her.

"One bad man!" Shouted the music, simply background noise to the now eight survivors.


	6. Chapter 6

Don't startle the Witch chapter 6

Fireworks flared up into the sky, the mortars dangerously close to the stage.

The firework show lit up the evening sky, bright whites and reds in the sky. Ellis laughed when he saw the helicopter fly into the stage.

"I told y'all! Midnight riders save lives!" Ellis shouted, running up the seats to the copter, everyone in tow behind him, except Homura, who as usual, magically disappeared. When the survivors got to the helicopter, Homura was already inside.

"Now girl," Coach said to Homura, nearly out of breath from all the running. "You REALLY need to stick with the group."

Homura shrugged and pulled out another M-16, and handed it to Nick.

"You had one clip left. Have another." Homura said, watching Nick do the universal 'Well yeah, I'll take this!' gesture with his face, and tossing his old rifle out the copter window.

"Everyone onto the copter!" Rochelle shouted, firing her AK-47 rapidly at an approaching Tank. "And shoot that Tank!"

Homura simply looked down at her shield and pulled out the long sniper she used before, and steadily aimed. She fired, watching the fifty-caliber bullet penetrate both sides of the Tank's exposed skull. It gave a vicious growl before falling off of the higher seating charts, hitting the ground mediumly hard from thirty feet up.

"Everyone's on! Let's go!" Mami instructed, the helicopter pilot hoping his copter could handle eight people plus himself, who was hiding a vicious bite mark under a layer of gauze.

"Nick, what was that, man? You shot the pilot!" Ellis complained to Nick, both of which were with the other survivors in an open boxcar on a railroad.

"He was a zombie, Ellis. I shot a zombie."

"Yes, that's true. Our flight would have been much more enjoyable if the pilot didn't stop flying the chopper, and well… attacked us. At least we landed safely." Rochelle said.

"Yeah, she's at least looking at the positives here." Coach said, crossing his arms, sick of Ellis' and Nick's useless banter.

Madoka took a deep sigh, looking down at her blood-soaked, vomit covered, acid burned, and torn outfit. Everyone else's clothes were basically the same, but none of them looked as bad as Madoka's. She thought she even had mud in her hair. This is going to be one heck of an excuse to her parents. She looked over at Sayuka, whose only clothing problems was a bit of dried blood and dirt. Mami's outfit was clean and perfect, and Homura's had a visible 3-finger claw mark on the upper chest area, with obvious gauze bandages underneath.

"Well, does anyone know exactly where we are?" Sayuka asked, inspecting the condition of her sword.

"No clue. Looks like some kind of swamp." Ellis attempted explaining, as there were no street signs around, and all the houses looked rugged and poorly-made.

"No CEDA, no military, Stay out." Coach read a banner over a fence by a nearby gas station, whose sign clearly labeled 'NO GAS' on it.

"Oh, sounds like a pleasant place to enter." Sayuka joked. "Why not just walk down the street?"

But as soon as she said that, a sudden breeze blew heavy through the hilly landscape and all the survivors watched as half of the nearby gas station collapsed over the road.

"Well. Guess we ain't going that way." Ellis said in response to Sayuka, whom gave a irritated expression on her face.

"C'mon, cheer up. We got plenty of other ways to go." Nick said, patting Sayuka on the shoulder, partially teasing her.

"Then lets get movin', people!" Coach instructed, running out, with Ellis actually running after him.

"Umm, some sort of bat thing here." Ellis said, looking at a cricket bat.

"I'll take that." Madoka said, and Ellis passed the bat to Madoka.

"I'm grabbin' these pills." Rochelle said, searching inside the half-collapsed gas station.

Mami partially giggled when Coach followed Rochelle and stuffed as many 'Chocolate helicopter' chocolate bars into his deep pockets.

Sayuka began to say something, but Madoka stepped on her foot to shut her up. Sayuka gave her a glare of 'I hate you, but at the same time don't'.

"Here." Madoka heard Homura say, and turned towards the sound. As soon as she turned, she was holding a small, orange box in her hands that read 'INCEDIARY' on the side in black lettering.

"Umm…" Madoka began, only to never actually see Homura.

"Yo, Madoka!" She heard Nick shout. "What'chu got there?"

"Umm, it says…" Madoka said, reading it. "Incendiary?"

"Oh, fire bullets. Press the button on the side." Ellis said, then paused. "But make sure its on the ground first."

Madoka hesitantly put the box on the ground, and pressed the button like Ellis instructed. The top broke open and inside there was several different types of ammunition.

"Oh yeah, lets burn some stuff up!" Coach said, loading eight of the Incendiary shells into his shotgun.

"Yeah, this is going to be fun." Nick said, loading a new clip of his SMG with the incendiary ammunition.

"Aww, this is gonna be cool, man." Ellis said, loading his shotgun.

"I'm not playing now!" Rochelle threatened, the fire bullets inserted.

"Mami, there's enough for one more." Rochelle said, pointing to the remaining shotgun shells inside it.

"I suppose I can try this." Mami said, looking down at her shotgun. She smiled and then loaded the remaining loads.

"That's all of them. Ellis…?" Nick questioned.

"I'm gonna make me some zombie grits, man!" Ellis shouted from a distance.

"Oh, perfect." Nick sighed. "He had to go find a frying pan…."

Sayuka laughed and imagined Ellis whacking a zombie's face in with a pan. She easily could, which was the funnier part.

"C'mon, people. We need to find Ellis before he gets himself into a pickle." Coach suggested.

"I'm sorry, but you guys all speak kinda weird." Sayuka said. "Just gotta say."

"Nah, y'all are fine for sayin' that." Coach said, not worrying about Sayuka's remark.

"Yeah, welcome to Georgia. I would of thought you'd of gotten used to it by now." Rochelle agreed.

"So why is it exactly we are visiting… What was it? Norlins?" Mami questioned.

"New Orleans," Nick said, pronouncing the words clearly and crispy. "Is the only zombie-free zone in America. We would have been there by now, if not for the idiot chopper pilot."

"Ah, I see why we're going there now." Sayuka figured. "Heck, if we're lucky, we might just find our Witch.

"Just let me get a whack at it at least once. Right in the face." Ellis said, jumping into the conversation, his brand-new cooking utensil already dented and splattered with zombie blood.

"Good luck." Sayuka said. "Heck, none of the witches we've faced yet have even had a face."

"Oh, okay. Why am I getting jealous of you guys?" Ellis pondered.

"Just shut up and move. I'm already getting sick of this place." Nick inserted, obvious annoyance in his tone.

"All right then. "Y'all follow me." Ellis instructed, as he got a better lay of the land than the others.

At the end of the road was a dock with a motor-operated ferry, and a Charger hanging from two posts, an obvious tribute to some form of religion. Flies buzzed around the dead corpse in midair, and Sayuka and Madoka both tried her best not to gag from the stench of the one-armed mutation.

"Well, that's smart." Ellis noted, gripping ahold of the ferry lever. "'Cause y'see zombies cant operate a ferry.

"Pull it man." Nick ordered.

"I hit it." Ellis said as the ferry screeched across the wire cable.

"Here they come!" Mami said, repositioning her shotgun's stock so it wouldn't slide off her upper chest area.

"It's almost turning futile." Kyubey said, its eyes focusing among the battle on the other end of the dock. "Why can't you humans just swim?"

"Crocodile warning." Homura responded, sitting beside the incubator on a park bench, watching the same battles.

"So they use the boat to not get eaten?"

"Yeah, that's their plan."

"Useless plan."

"To them, no it isn't."

"Useless to watch."

"That is slowly becoming the truth." Homura responded, watching the group travel across the ferry to her location.

"This is how I disappear. Until next time, Akemi Homura." Said Kyubey, only to vanish immediately afterwards.


	7. Chapter 7

Don't startle the Witch chapter 7

"Jesus Christ," Nick said when he saw Homura standing there. "I don't even know your name, but you're already getting on my nerves."

"I agree with the man." Coach said, crossing his arms. "You actually could'a helped us back there.

"You appeared to have the situation fairly under control." Homura said, flicking her hair back. "Here. Who would like a grenade launcher?"

"I'll take it." Ellis said, and Homura passed him the single-barreled launcher.

"Geez, Ellis." Rochelle said with disbelief. "That's your third grenade launcher in the last 2 days."

"Hey, that a problem to you?" Ellis joked.

"Not yet."

Madoka looked up at Homura, Madoka's hands shaking around the hilt of a different Frying pan she picked up after her cricket bat snapped.

"Sick of firearms?" Homura asked Madoka in a physic link.

"A little bit… Doesn't feel right for me…" Madoka responded, a slight blush on her face.

"Understandable. And the situation?"

"Zombies? I hate them." Madoka giggled. "And I need a bath. Really bad."

"What're y'all standing around for? Let's get going." Coach questioned.

"I agree with Coach." Mami said.

"All right, y'all." Ellis said, noticing the collapsing walkways crashing into the thick swamp water. "Let's just stay on the walkways."

Madoka looked down at her burned shoes and torn tights. She was a mess. Swamp water won't make it any worse.

"Which way are we going?" Mami asked, noticing a fork in the pathway.

"Bottle of puke here." Nick said, checking a nearby house. "And a Chainsaw. Ellis?"

Ellis looked down at his dented frying pan and simply nodded no.

"Wow, that's a first." Nick said, and picked up the Chainsaw for himself.

"Anything else in there?" Coach asked, walking in himself. "Aww yeah, I got the pills!"

"Grabbin' a shot!" Ellis said, picking up the last of the items inside the room.

Homura stayed oddly with the rest of the group, thinking of Coach's remark to 'stay with y'all' during the Midnight riders concert, a pump-shotgun in her hands.

Mami and Homura never actually make eye-contact, as Madoka and Sayuka both sensed a very thick tension between the two, a dangerous thing to have in the current appocolypse.

Everyone looked around when they heard the oh-so-familiar sound that cursed their ears. Crying.

"That crying girl's around. Kill your lights." Ellis said, reaching over and turning the light off his grenade launcher.

Everyone else did the same, and Sayuka's flashlight died before the concert was over.

"Anyone got any good Cr0wning weapons?" Ellis asked, his current loadout not very good for the Witch battle.

Homura walked past Ellis with a loaded Spaz-12.

"Do y'all know what you're doing?" Coach questioned.

"Completely." Homura said, the shotgun loose in her hands.

"Huh?" The Witch attempted the speak, in her quiet, raspy voice.

"Goodbye." Homura said, and everyone was amazed when Homura pulled the trigger and the Witch's head exploded from close range, blood splattering all over the floor, The Witch's long claws inches away from Homura.

"Jesus Christ!" Nick yelled, startled.

"Oh my god…" Sayuka said, swallowing hard.

Homura kicked the empty shotgun shell off the walkway and calmy looked down at the decapitated Witch, its head in pieces all over the walkway.

"Honestly now," Homura said, and fired another shot into the stomach area of the already-dead witch. Double tap. Even if it's head is gone. Homura pushed off the witch with her foot, the dirty swamp water quickly turning bloody.

"Am I the only one getting kinda 'fraid of her, though?" Ellis whispered.

"Nope." Nick silently responded. "She's probably the best of us here."

"But what's her name?" Ellis pondered.

"Akemi Homura." She responded, somehow hearing them from nearly ten feet away. "Call me Homura."

"Well gee, I'm-" Ellis began.

"Ellis." Homura finished. "Ellis, Nick, Coach, and Rochelle."

"Holy-" Coach began. "How'd you know that?"

"Call it foresight, if you must." Homura said, not bothering to walk back to their location.

"Okay, that's kinda weird, but hey, what the heck." Nick said, and considered a handshake, but quickly told his hand not to, as for all he knows, she could throw him 30 feet in the air or something.

With a long, silent pause, the entire party of survivors continued walking forward, Homura leading this time.

"Sniper here." Homura said, picking up one of the rifles and sliding it into the vast quantities of space under her shield.

"Pow! I'm gonna snipe some freaks with this one!" Coach said, exchanging the shotgun for the rifle.

Ellis walked down a set of stairs, leading to a dock.

"The road stops here. Guess we need to go another way." Ellis said, looking around.

"Over here!" Sayuka said, noticing a patch of land behind the dock.

"Good eyes, girl." Nick said, still having trouble learning names.

"It's Sayuka." She explained to Nick.

"Oh, okay."

"Hey, we got some planks over here." Rochelle said, noticing a couple wooden planks floating in the water.

The survivors carefully wandered the swamps, noticing a faint light in the distance.

"We got lights on over there!" Nick said, running towards it.

Homura stopped Nick when she heard a long hissing noise.

"HEY GUYS, IT'S A SPITTER DUDE!" Ellis shouted, firing at the long-necked zombie with the neon-green liquid spraying from it's mouth.

Rochelle fired a properly-placed sniper shot and the spitter collapsed to the ground.

"Nice shot." Mami complimented.

"Thanks." Rochelle answered.

"Yo everyone, into the Safe house!" Nick instructed as he set up the locks on the steel safe house door.

Every did as they were told and went inside.

"Does anyone have any Bug spray?" Rochelle asked, swatting a mosquito off the back of her neck.

"Ooh, you can try covering yourself in mud." Ellis offered.

"Ellis, not the best idea, don't you think?" Nick said, looking down at his suit. "Can we just get out of here fast? This swamp water's ruining my white suit."

"You mean the same white suit with Zombie brains all over it?" Rochelle teased.

"Hey, brains come out. Swamp water doesn't." Nick responded, then awkwardly paused. "Don't ask me how I know that."

Ellis did as usual and cut-into a conversation with a story.

"I ever tell y'all about the time my buddy Keith tried deep-frying a turkey? Third degree burns over ninety percent of his body. His doctor had to call up like, other doctors to look at him 'cause they never seen burns on top of existing burns."

"Ellis, sweetie, is now the best time?" Rochelle asked.

"Oh, okay." He responded, ending his story.

Sayuka looked down at her shoes and began to complain about the swamp water.

"Sayuka, you only stepped in the water once. It's not that bad." Mami said, with a sigh. "How much worse can it get?"

"Ugh, time to get wet." Ellis said, noticing how the pier outside the safe house quickly angled downward, into the water. Sayuka gave an irritated look at Mami.

"Well, my suit's already ruined. Lets go." Nick said, setting out into the water.

"Let's just go." Ellis said, following him.

"I ever tell you how much I hate swamps?" Sayuka said.

"No. You didn't." Rochelle joked.

"Yeah, I hate swamps. A lot."

"That's good to know."

"What's that over there?" Coach asked, seeing a small light over in a nearby rowboat that went partially ashore.

"I dunno." Rochelle answered. "Lets check it out."

"More Incendiary." Homura said, suddenly appearing in the boat. "And a vile containing 'bile'."

Ellis tossed the Bile jar to Madoka, who nearly stumbled and dropped it.

"I question why you are so interested in vomit." Homura said.

"It's like a beacon for the zombies. They all like the smell." Mami figured.

"That's entirely disgusting." Sayuka said, swatting away bugs.

"To us, but not to them. So long as it stays capped, they wont come running." Nick said.

Madoka carefully clipped the bile jar to the bullet belt Ellis gave her at Whitaker's gun shop, the loops empty and unused.

The survivors walked amongst the swamps, carefully treading. They saw an abandoned house, which had broken apart badly with what everyone would of thought was a tornado; as only the frame still stood. There was a short dock with a couple gallons of Gasoline on it, and a fire axe sticking out the side, nothing worth taking.

"Anyone else see the parachutist back there?" Nick asked, as he took his m-16 rifle.

"I did." Ellis answered. "But what in the world is a parachutist doing out here?"

"Hey Ellis, I found your reason." Rochelle shouted over to Ellis.

"Really?" Ellis and Nick both questioned, running that direction.

"Jesus Christ! A whole plane!" Nick marveled at the crashed airliner with the plane slashed into large chunks, one of the wings bent in half.

"Wow, I don't think we're ever gonna see anything good ever again." Ellis moaned.

"Ellis, you did find some firearms, didn't you?" Mami proposed the question.

"Well, yeah. I guess so." Ellis answered.

"That's good to all of us, really." Mami explained.

"Warning. Alarm will sound if door is opened." Coach read on the side of the closed airplane door, the only way through.

"Figures." Nick sighed. "Pull it, man."

The door opened and a high-pitched alarm rung throughout the swamp.

"Everyone on guard!" Mami ordered, her Tactical shotgun smooth in her hands.

Homura stood on top of the plane, sniping as many incoming zombies she could with the limited clip sizes.

The alarm eventualy stopped ringing and everyone took a second to rest on the stable plane wing, which was mere feet above the ground.

"Woo." Coach said with a pant. "That was a lot of guys."

"You're telling me." Sayuka said, disappointed that her katana finally snapped.

Bullet shells littered the area, bright red shotgun shells to copper-tinted M-16 shells. Homura slid down off the roof to the wing in which everyone sat, and looked down at her egg-shaped gem, a deep purple as compared to Mami's golden one. This one indeed, as very dark and clouded. Her hand closed around it and her clothes transformed into the exact same school outfit all of the other girls wore, still much cleaner than Madoka's. Which made her upset.

"Well, lets get moving. There isn't much further." Homura said, walking out into the swamp, everyone else chasing after her.


	8. Chapter 8

Don't startle the Witch chapter 8

"There looks like lights up there." Mami said, noticing a faint light in the distance.

"She's got the right idea." Nick agreed.

"Heeeeeeey!" Rochelle yelled out.

"Heeeeey-oo!" Nick joined in. "Anyone home?"

The eight survivors made their way around a mass of wooden fences and found another safe room.

"Perfect." Rochelle said. "The swamp people are zombies."

"I guess there goes that plan." Sayaka said, looking down at the new machete she held in her hands.

"I betcha' we ain't never gonna hear good news again." Ellis moped.

"Swamp people, I'm sorry. I gotta shoot you." Rochelle chanted, taking a deep breath.

Mami looked down at the weapons on the table of the safe room, a M-16, a combat shotgun, and a United states military-grade Sniper rifle. He dropped her nearly empty hunting rifle and snagged the sniper rifle, It's shock fitting well against her body.

"Y'all ready?" Ellis asked, making sure everyone was prepared before they exposed themselves.

Everyone basically nodded yes and Coach unlocked the door, as he was closest. The eight survivors scattered out of the safe room and ambushed the zombies before the zombies could reverse their tactics, Nick grinning partially as the bloody mess of zombies dying occurs in front of him.

"Let's check these houses." Mami suggested, tossing a Molotov cocktail to Coach after the fighting was over.

Ellis leaned over and picked up another Frying pan, as his was heavily bent to one side, the inside of the skillet nearly touching Ellis' hand as he held it.

Mami slowly drifted ahead of the pack, her sniper rifle almost out of rounds in the clip.

Sayaka looked up from a box full of supplies to see something beginning to run towards Mami.

"Mami! Look out!" Sayaka shouted, trying to get her attention. Mami turned around at the wrong time, just as a Charger crashed into her at full-force.

"Charger's got Mami!" Nick noted, running towards her as fast as he could. He walked into the room and quickly his M-16 was ablaze, blowing holes through the Charger. Mami winches as she got up, as she had actually began to bleed. The back of her uniform was scraped up from the old wood of the house she was in, the last empty shell of the sniper laying on the floor beside her.

"Hold on, I need to reload." Mami said, alerting the rest of the team, who had done so as well.

Madoka looked over at Sayaka, and laughed when she noticed that they were the only of the eight without a gun. She felt uncomfortable using them in Whispering Oaks, and was still traumatized by everything that occurred to her over the span of two simple days.

The survivors carefully walked around, plugging their noses when they passed a small pile of dead horses.

"I know I heard it spread through mammals, but…" Rochelle began, taking a cleaner breath of air out of the area.

"That's just disgusting." Sayaka noted, trying not to look at the decomposing corpses.

"Hey, what's this over here?" Ellis asked, noticing a crossing bridge.

"Thank god for bridges. My shoes are officially ruined." Sayaka complained, and then looked at Madoka's ruined outfit. She quickly realized a little mud on her shoes isn't as bad as she would of thought.

"Well, let's just keep going, shall we?" Coach offered.

"Right." Madoka agreed, doing her best at speaking, returning to her usually frightened state.

"Grabbin' a shot." Ellis said, clipping 3 milliliters of pure adrenaline onto his belt.

"What else you got up there, boy?" Coach asked, taking another bite of a chocolate helicopter bar.

"Ooh, got some ammo up here, too." Ellis suggested. "Come and get it if you need it."

As happened one two many times before, Sayaka and Madoka stood guard as the other five survivors searched for supplies, Homura always somehow getting on the roof above them, and always had the sniper rifle of choice ready. Madoka didn't understand Homura's reasoning, and Sayaka plain out didn't care for Homura in general.

"There we go. All set." Mami said, walking out of the small shack first, the rest of them following her.

"Tank." Homura said, her voice never changing tone or emotion. "100 meters out and closing."

No one believed her until a Tank, sure as day, burst out of a shack ahead, nearly tearing the small, hand-made house into shreds.

"Keep cover, everyone! We got ourselves a Tank!" Mami instructed, holding her ground like the other survivors.

"LIGHT THAT MOTHER UP!" Ellis shouted, firing a grenade directly into the Tank's face, everyone else shooting rapidly along-side him. As the Tank quickly approached them, almost like it was disregarding the swarm of bullets flying towards it, Everyone scrambled for cover and it swung it's massive arms around, nearly sending Nick flying if it weren't for a quick step. Nick swallowed hard as the Tank raised both of it's arms high in the air, ready to smash Nick into a bloody pancake.

He shut his eyes and braced for impact as he felt a splatter of something wet splash at his collar. He opened his eyes and saw Sayaka's machete severing the entire chest cavity of the Tank, through it's back and ribcage.

"Holy sh-" Nick began, choked up by the save, the Tank's eyes white and lifeless.

"Woo, what a save." Rochelle said, helping Sayuka pull out the Machete out of the Tank's chest.

The Machete was dripping with blood, the warm liquid dripping down Sayaka's arm. Homura jumped down off the roof, her sniper rifle smoking, it's silencer doing it's job well amongst the gunfire of the other survivors.

"Let's get moving. No use standing around here." Homura said, walking ahead of everyone reloading.

Everyone followed after her, out of breath from the Tank battle, amazed she had so much energy to spare.

"Aww, what the heck." Ellis groaned as he noticed the only way across was to lower a bridge that's mechanism had seemed to never be oiled ever, and it squeaked very loudly as it lowered.

"All right, I'm lowering it!" He shouted, noticing the incoming horde appearing towards them. "Everyone get ready!"

Ellis, Mami, Nick, Madoka, Coach, Sayaka, and Rochelle all stood in a very awkward circle, their backs all towards each other, protecting every direction, while Homura did her best confusing the special infected by teleporting when they attacked.

"Suck on this!" Nick shouted as he shredded tens of hundreds of zombies apart with the Chainsaw he acquired from before.

"Bridge's lowered! Let's run!" Coach instructed, everyone running towards land.

"Stairs!" Mami said in joy. "Safe room's ahead!"

"Everyone get in here! Now!" Sayaka instructed, making sure everyone was inside.

"Now THAT is how it's done RIGHT!" Ellis exclaimed, happy of their results.

Ellis turned around and counted the survivors, realizing one was missing. Akemi Homura.

"You're holding up well." Kyubey said to Homura, both of them in a small room in a large plantation house.

"It's not easy." Homura responded.

"I suppose I can understand that, Akemi Homura." The small cat-like creature responded.

"I'm sick of this scenario." Homura complained and crossed her arms.

"Everyone is, but no one can change that right now." Kyubey explained.

"So when does it stop?" Homura questioned.

"The bridge."

"Bridge? Which one? We've crossed millions of bridges." Homura argued.

"Two-thousand thirt-one bridges, actually." Kyubey estimated. Homura gave it a sour look and the incubator never moved.

"Fine, whatever." Homura sourly spoke.

"The survivors are coming here in ten minutes. Be ready." Kyubey finished, disappearing when Homura next blinked.

"Everyone check these shacks." Coach instructed, looking around the poorly made shacks in the small town they stood in.

"Got a fire axe here." Mami told, picking up the fire axe.

"Dude, found a whole load of stuff here!" Ellis yelled, looking at a couple shelves of bile bombs, pills, and bullets.

"Awesome." Nick said, amazed by the amount of items inside the larger of the houses.

"Y'all ready?" Coach asked, making sure everyone grabbed something they could use later.

"I am." Sayaka said and looked at Madoka, who awkwardly shivered, signaling her way of 'yes'. "Madoka is."

"Okay, let's head towards that house."


	9. Chapter 9

Don't startle the Witch chapter 9

"Jesus Christ!" Nick cursed as he saw the size of the house they needed to arrive at.

"Wow, that's a big house." Sayaka said, whistling a long tune.

The seven survivors ran across the mansion's massive yard, doing their bests to survive the hordes of average infected. They all stopped when a Smoker's distinct cry echoed the area, Sayaka's grip tight around her bloody machete.

"Smoker!" Ellis yelled and pointed towards the long-tongued zombie, whom spat its tongue out towards Sayaka, who slashed it in half as soon as it touched her body, and Mami fired her strong sniper rifle at it and watched it collapse into a hump as green smoke exploded out of the dead body.

"Nice shot!" Rochelle complimented, continuing the forward stride.

"How do we get in?" Nick questioned, noticing the front door was lock and the windows were heavily boarded up.

"Over there. See the sacfolding?" Ellis asked, pointing to a ladder leading to an open window.

"Nice eyes, boy." Coach spoke.

One by one, everyone went up the ladder and into the house, which was still partially in construction, including a missing roof and several holes in the floor. The back door opened perfectly to a wonderful garden of hedge mazes, boxed in by a 30-foot high concrete gate.

"Wow." Nick commented. "Fancy. Aside from all of the holes around."

"Yeah, imagine if this place was done? Aww man, I'd never run out of places for hide-and-seek." Ellis laughed.

"Oh my god, he really does act like he's five." Nick complained.

"What's that over there?" Rochelle questioned, noticing a small, dark object contrast against the darkened white gates.

Mami brought the sniper scope to her eye to examine it from a distance.

"Looks like a radio." Mami answered, releasing the scope away from her golden eyes.

"Ooh, I got it." Ellis said, dragging Madoka and Nick along for support.

"Why are you taking me with?" Madoka pondered.

"Yeah. And me?" Nick agreed.

"I might need some help with what might be said." Ellis said, and grabbed the headset. "Hello there."

"Oh, why, hello! I haven't a voice out here in nearly three days! Tell me, what can I do for you?" Where y'all at?" A voice asked through the radio, with an obvious French accent.

"Umm, We're at a plantation house." Ellis responded, unsure of how better to describe it.

"Ooh, I'll be right there! Stay tight for a minute!" The man said, the link cutting.

Ellis, Madoka, and Nick all quickly ran back towards Rochelle, Coach, Mami and Sayaka on the second floor, accompanied by another.

"Homura!" Nick shouted to her, her steady hands working at a large machine gun, tearing apart the incoming hordes of zombies, their obvious spot of attack from the left and right.

"What is it, Nick?" She calmly questioned, barely heard over the roar of the machine gun, fifty-callibur sized bullet shells bursting out of the side.

"Y'all wanna just stay in the group a little longer, okay?" Nick calmly asked, pausing his speech every time he fired his M-16 at the incoming hordes.

Homura had not answered, and more re-focused her sights at Nick as the machine gun's barrel began to turn a vivid red. Overheating would be an issue in this situation, as the massive hordes of zombies crowded from every direction, some of the common infected getting lost in the hedge mazes.

"Goo! Incoming!" Coach shouted as spitter acid burned away at the floor beneath their feet, along with their poorly maintained shoes.

"Move, move, man! I'm in spitter goo!" Ellis complained as he skipped out of the spread, his feet burning. Everyone took a moment to pause and take their breath, the hordes gone and spitter acid disapated, but they didn't have much time to rest.

Homura pushed everyone nearby her away and vanished, just in time for them to dodge a large chunk of rock thrown by a Tank.

"Nice save, but whoa!" Ellis commented, firing a grenade towards the incoming Tank.

"Everyone shoot that big mother!" Coach yelled, shooting off his twin pistols as fast and accurately as he could, as he knew the pistols worked much for effectively for distances than his shotgun.

Everyone who owned a firearm had it ablaze, and Madoka and Sayaka threw their pipe bombs and molotovs.

Everyone watched as the Tank collapsed onto the ground, it's pink skin burning in the heat of a Molotov fire.

"Woo. Why does it feel like that one took more bullets to kill?" Coach asked, looking down at the spent shells all over the ground.

"I did." Mami said, dropping another sniper rifle clip off of the second floor balcony.

"Hey, when do we know if the radio dude's coming?" Sayaka asked, hearing a faint sizzling in the distance.

Everyone jumped as the main gate disappeared into a massive explosion.

"That answer your question?" Nick teased.

"Come on, y'all! Allons! Allons!" The radio man yelled from a boat on the end of a dock.

"Come on, y'all! Everyone onto that boat!" Coach instructed, running down the staircase at the center of the house, everyone following after him, Mami and Homura simply jumping down off of the second floor, their magical bodies resistant to the damage of falling.

Madoka and Sayaka stayed behind, as they weren't as fast as the others, Sayaka began to realize she could run faster than Madoka, eager to board the boat of saviors.

"Heads up! We got another problem!" Sayaka shouted, running faster away from Madoka, and also the incoming Tank.

Madoka screamed as she noticed the Tank running behind her, it's wide arms swinging wildly.

"Someone help me!" Madoka screamed, placing her frying pan over her head like a helmet, as effective of protection as she could.

She shrieked as the Tank approached and barely missed her by mere inches, the boat only feet away.

Madoka's foot snagged in a broken board of the dock and collapsed onto the floor, the Tank right above her, ready to attack.

Scared out of her mind, she shut her eyes tightly and twisted herself around, hoping to trick the Tank into attacking the dock first.

"Madoka!" She heard a voice yell, too frightened to attempt comprehending who's it was.

She heard the Tank wince in pain and felt the weight of the Tank reposition itself on the dock. Madoka opened her eyes to see Homura, near inches away from the Tank, her sniper rifle's barrel coated with the Tank's blood as the bullets traveled clean through the Tank's head, the bullet hitting the back of its skull from 3 centimeters away. The Tank collapsed after 4 headshots, and fell into the dirty water, the 900-pound beast sinking to the bottom of the deeper water.

Tears streamed down Madoka's face as she felt the Tank's warm blood stain her school sweater.

"…Homura?" Madoka questioned, wiping tears from her face.

Madoka shivered as her cold hands met Homura's warm ones, getting back to her feet.

"Come on, onto the boat!" The man in the boat's captain room said, the same man from the radio.

Homura's hand stayed in Madoka's for a long second, and then separated from Madoka's.

"Come on, let's get out of here!" Coach instructed Virgil; the boat captain, to start the boat as soon as the final two survivors were on board.

The boat left the dock quickly and everyone watched as several zombies began to drown in the inability to swim.


	10. Chapter 10

Don't startle the Witch chapter 10

"I'm gonna throw the anchor just off shore, waitin' for y'all! Signal at me when you get the gas!" Virgil said, depositing the survivors on a shore, a Burger Tank restaurant large in front of them.

"How are we supposed to signal him?" Nick questioned.

"Oh, there's flares in the gun bag." Ellis responded.

"What gun bag?"

"Don't tell me you forgot the gun bag." Ellis complained. "Man, my grenade launcher was in there!"

"All of our weapons were." Mami said, trying to settle Ellis. "Everyone's. But don't worry."

"She's right. If we find guns here like we do everywhere else, this'll be easy." Rochelle agreed.

"Can someone lend me a hand here?" Nick asked, his fingers attempting to pry open a car trunk.

"C'mon, on three." Coach said, assisting Nick open the trunk. "Two… Three!"

The two burst open the trunk and inside was a couple melee weapons, a few frying pans, a Katana which Sayaka stole quickly, and another set of Glock pistols.

"That's right. I'm gonna take everything I can." Coach said, snatching the second pistol.

"We got some more in the Burger Tank!" Rochelle alerted, picking up a hunting rifle off one of the fast-food joints' tables.

"Sweet." Ellis rang and almost skipped over to his favorite thing in the world aside from Kiddie land- Guns.

When everyone grabbed a weapon, Madoka noticed two feet dangling off the side of the awning, obvious black shoes and tights. It was Homura, sitting on the edge, her favorite now blood-coated sniper rifle in her hands. Madoka was surprised how Homura had carried so many bullets, as she was the only one with the looped belt for bullet clips, unused and partially sought after by Mami, as the loops could easily fit her as well, and they tied at the bottom for shotgun shells, which had a very close similarity to her Magical muskets. Whispering Oaks amusement park. That was the last time Mami used her magical girl form, the swamps the last time she noticed Homura use her's, as the sniper rifle she adored so much in this adventure was attached to her back by a leather strap that looped around her body diagonally, a bright-red first aid kit attached to her hip, her school-official skirt becoming partially torn and stained from the loose branches in the swamp and the blood from the zombies, her violet eyes distant and unknown.

"Is everyone ready to continue, Kaname Madoka?" Homura asked, amazingly never turning her head or even moving her eyes, but Madoka instantly knew it was her she was speaking with.

"Yes, I think they are." Madoka answered shyly. "You all set?"

"Yeah, I'd say I am." Ellis said, and looked at Nick, who nodded in agreement.

Sayaka basically was ready for anything and Mami smiled her usual re-encouraging smile she had. Coach and Rochelle grinned with the hunting rifles strong in their hands.

"Then let's go." Homura said, and lept down off the ledge, not even bothering to notice the ladder beside her. Madoka attempted to speak to Homura, but quickly felt a loss of words as soon as her mouth opened.

"Yo, Madoka! Anyone there?" Sayaka asked and impatiently tapped on Madoka's head with her finger, trying to get her attention.

"Oh? Oh!" Madoka realized and refocused her attention. "What's up?"

"I hoped it wouldn't be two much invoncience, but I think Mami wants your belt there." Sayaka said, as simple as she could.

"Oh, sure." Madoka agreed and unfastened the belt and gave it to Mami, who fitted it around her waist as quickly as possible and loaded several shotgun shells into each fold. As she was in her schoolgirl outfit, she had no place to clip her findings to, and thanked Madoka kindly when she got somewhere to put them.

"Madoka." Homura spoke, her sniper rifle on her back and a small pistol in her hand, and turned around to look at Madoka's frightened face. "Let us continue." She spoke, firing a pistol bullet into the head of a sprinting zombie, near inches from her when she fired, not even turning her head to focus the shot. Yes, she headshot a zombie she didn't even see. This made Madoka's knees wobble as she thought of all the times she's saved her in the adventure.

"R-right. Let's go." Madoka swallowed her fright and attempted to act brave, not for Ellis anymore, this time for Homura.

"Christ, looks like this is gonna come down pretty good." Nick complained, a rain drop hitting him directly in the center of the top of his head.

"Out of gas. Next gas station is 2.6 miles away." Sayaka noted.

"Great, looks like our milk run just turned into a marathon." Nick continued to complain, and kicked the wooden sign that was nailed over the gas prices.

"Let's just find the nearest station and fill er' up there, all right, Nick?" Coach suggested, and Nick shrugged.

"Whatever gets us out of here fastest." Nick responded with a sigh.

"Come on, we need to move faster if we want to stay out of this rain, people." Rochelle said, an excellent point on her part.

"Garage sales?" Sayaka questioned as she saw a massive orange-and-white painted sign advertising a small weapons expo down the street.

"Also known as weapon heaven. Let's check this out." Ellis responded.

"Gonna bonk some heads in with this one." Nick said and picked up a frying pan, Ellis picking up a crowbar for a breif period of time and going on a rant about some guy named Gordan Freeman, only to return to his dented pan of a weapon.

"Y'all hear her?" Rochelle whispered, stopping in place.

"Witch." Sayaka figured out, as the pastey-white skinned female zombies with the blonde hair and torn clothes were obvious threats.

"No one's got a good Cr0wner." Ellis complained, looked at everyone's weaponry.

"I never had a tolerence for Witches." Mami said. "I'll try on this one."

The Witch and Mami's eyes met, the Witch's blood red ones contrasting Mami's golden eyes.

The Witch growled softly as she looked at Mami, her crying position quickly turning to her attack position. The Witch drove one of it's sharp-clawed hands towards Mami's stomach, only to be countered by Mami's elbow striking the hand hard, and her shotgun hand quickly focusing it's target. With a matter of half a second, the Witch laid dead on the ground, a medium-sized hole in the center of her chest, her ribs sticking out of the hole within.

"Wow." Ellis said, dumfounded. "That was a good shot."

Rochelle blinked a couple times, trying to recooperate what had just happened within half a second span. "Woo." She managed.

"Yeah, gotta agree. You're fast on your feet, girl." Coach agreed.

"Well, now that she's dead, y'all wanna start moving again?" Nick protested, being the only one able to keep up besides Madoka and Sayaka.

"S-sure." Madoka stuttered, eager to get away from the bleeding Witch, it's red eyes blank and dull.

"What's that down that there way?" Ellis asked, noticing what appeared to be a well-built tornado shelter, painted a barn-red almost in color, a set of iron stairs leading to what he guessed was a door.

"Let's check it out, then." Mami suggested, waving her hand in the universal 'step ahead of me' position to everyone else, who quickly responded by doing her commands.

The survivor party carefully but quickly ran down the street, feeling the rain begin to get harder over their heads.

"Great, really looks like it's really coming down now." Rochelle noted, the rain steadily getting faster.

"Then let's get inside whatever's that direction." Sayaka suggested, an obvious thought amongst survivors. See a house? Go check if it's empty. If it is, Enter it quickly and look for supplies. If it isn't; Do the same thing as listed before, but kill everything you see.

"Safe room ahead!" Sayaka shouted as she noticed the room's steel door with red paint, a survivor party's way to signaling other survivors.

Ellis stopped and scanned the empty street. His ears heard a threatening sound.

"What's up?" Coach pondered.

"I hear one of them back humpers around here." Ellis spoke, not seeing the Jockey infected anywhere in the distance.

"Back humpers?" Sayaka pondered, unknowing of what a Jockey was, as she never seen one yet.

"JOCKEY!" Ellis shouted as the midget zombie clung to Sayaka's back, it's hands covering her eyes, dragging her in several separate directions.

"Get it off! GET IT OFF!" Sayaka cried as she felt the Jockey began to attack her back with it's sharp feet.

She felt blood splatter into her hair as a very loud strike from a frying pan smashed the Jockey's face in. Sayaka rubbed her eyes as she regained sight and saw the Jockey, dead on the ground, it's face flat from a direct strike. But by whom?

"Nice hit!" Rochelle complimented, Madoka's hands quivering, her pan covered with fresh blood.

"Madoka?" You got that thing?" Sayaka was amazed. "Finally. Be brave for once, will you?" She joked.

"Safe room, right up here!" Nick noted, commanding everyone to get inside.

Ellis looked at Nick, then at Madoka, and chuckled. "Y'know what, let's just call that one a tie."


	11. Chapter 11

Don't startle the Witch chapter 11

"I'm surprised of you." Homura spoke to Kyuubey, once again hidden away in a room far from the other survivors.

"How so?" Kyuubey pondered.

"By now I would have expected you to release yourself to Madoka and Sayaka, not be stuck with me. Plus I wonder why you no longer ask for contract."

"My powers do not work here, Akemi Homura. I am simply a telekinetic cat, so to speak." It explained.

"So you're more vulnerable here than before." Homura clicked together. "Hence why you're staying hidden away."

"You finally figured out my strategy of survival. And it also appears the rest of your so-said friends are also figuring out their own." Kyuubey noted.

"Yes, I believe so." Homura agreed.

"And I'm noticing that you have been using your Puella magi form very oftenly." Kyuubey noticed, the mood draining faster in the air. "With no witches to obtain a Grief seed from, that is a very risky maneuver."

Homura watched as her white and purple outfit disappeared into her schoolgirl outfit, looking down at the much darker Soul gem she owned.

"Exactly my point, Akemi Homura. Your teammates have noticed a great lack of you with your Puella magi form constantly vanishing. I suggest you stay with them to improve your chance of survival."

Homura agreed with Kyuubey's idea, but frowned. Obvious dislike of the plan.

"Ducatel sugar company." Coach read, grinning.

"What's so special about these guys?" Sayaka questioned.

"They supply the sugar for Coach's favorite candy bar." Rochelle explained. "And we found it."

"Well, road's blocked." Nick informed, making sure that the barricades blocking off the road were so incredibly fastened in. "I guess we gotta go through the sugar mill."

The rain overhead turned into a steady downpour, none of the survivors caring, Madoka loving it, thinking it may wash off some of the zombie bits, blood, and vomit off of her clothes, some of the mud in her hair and died up mud fastened to her legs where she had to step in the murky waters of the swamp.

"Hey, found an entrance." Mami noted, Ellis agreeing.

"She's right. She found a pretty big hole here." Ellis said.

The hole led through the main office building of Ducatel, the tables knocked over and filing cabinets broken, covered in blood and papers lying everywhere.

"Jesus Christ. Place got swarmed." Nick cursed, kicking what remained of a human hand out of his way.

Madoka got used to the blood and body parts, but seeing bone still freaked her out, as the skin rotted away from another full human, his skull exposed to the outside air, flies buzzing around it.

"Over this way." Coach instructed, finding an actual doorway leading outside, around the barrier.

Sayaka gave a long whistle when she saw the size of the actual sugar mill, the massive machines hidden away by crumbling brick walls. Portable street lights were placed everywhere, their batteries dying and the lights flickering very faintly.

A few of the filters were broken, some were even overturned, crashed into the soft soil.

The sharp steel supports were bent and dangerous, the falling sunset bright in the distance, unaffected by the storm clouds.

"Just everyone watch the sharper parts, and we'll be fine." Mami instructed.

The seven survivors carefully navigated the broken sugar mill, realizing that was only the first of the confusing mills.

"Y'all hear her?" Coach stopped Rochelle. "Get ready to toss that Witch."

Sayaka scowled when she heard the Witch's crying, sick of her constant moaning.

Sayaka noticed the Witch round the corner, her head in her long, blood-stained hands.

Sayaka looked down at her Katana, and gripped it tightly. She then met the Witch eye-to-eye, only to finish it before the Witch could notice. With a fairly fast and strong swing, the Witch's head flew off her neck.

"Whoa, girl!" Rochelle jumped.

"Holy…" Ellis began, but stopped.

"Wait a sec…" Madoka began, and heard something. "If she's dead, where's the crying coming from?"

Everyone else noticed a continuous crying, despite the Witch being dead. Everyone jumped as two more witches turned the corner.

"Any of y'all ever see this many witches before?" Ellis wondered.

"Not before, no." Mami answered.

"Let's not fight them. That'll be too much of a waste." Nick suggested, quickly walking around the Witches. The survivors walked carefully around the Witches and into the second sugar mill.

"Perfect. Looks like the water's starting to pool. Rochelle complained, the rainwater beginning to pool on the ground.

"There you are." Madoka heard Homura say, and searched the area in which she thought she'd be. She found her sitting on top of a small trailer-like building, her legs hanging off the side.

Homura leapt down and slid a pistol out of her small holster attached to her leg.

"How's the rain treating you?" Homura asked, the rain pouring over her pitch-black hair.

"It's sure cleaning my clothes off…" Madoka joked.

"Yes, I suppose so." Homura agreed, feeling the raindrops glimmer off her open hand.

"Hey, look who's back." Coach noticed, referencing Homura to the rest of the team.

"Oh great. We get the disappearing one again." Rochelle complained.

Homura glared at Rochelle and didn't even blink. Shudders were sent up Rochelle's spine, a cold chill just from the glare.

"I'm done with that for now." Homura said with a sigh.

"Well, I'm no fan of rain, especially standing in it. How about we do something other than stand in it?" Nick complained.

"Fine." Homura responded.

"Let's try the stairs there. There's a roof there." Sayaka suggested, pointing towards a large brick building, with stairs escalating up.

At the third floor of the building, a steel elevator lay, waiting to be called up from the ground floor, a very large sugar cane field expanding in the horizon.

"I'm calling it!" Rochelle said, pressing the button on the elevator controls, the elevator creaking up the rusty shaft.

"They're coming!" Ellis warned, noticing the hordes of zombies coming from every direction.

Madoka nearly stumbled as her back met with Homura's, Homura's newly-found AK-47 blazing at the tip, Madoka's Frying pan making a plentiful amount of noise with every head bashed in.

The hordes of infected swarmed from every direction, everyone's weapons ablaze and swinging, the elevator coming up very slowly and loudly.

"Ugh, what is this that I'm covered in?" Nick shouted, a boomer exploding beside him.

"Don't worry, I gotch'er back." Coach re-encouraged, his shotgun protecting Nick from the attacking infected, Nick wiping vomit from his face.

"Come on, y'all! Elevator's here!" Rochelle instructed, her hand awaiting for everyone to get on before she pressed the button.

When everyone was inside, she smashed the button and the elevator screeched back down the chamber, the zombies ending their attack with the survivor's descent.

"Woo." Madoka managed with a sigh.

"I agree with her." Coach said, panting.

"I didn't expect that many." Sayaka said, inspecting her sword, nearly broken once again.

"Well, the gas station's right over there. No problem." Ellis encouraged.

"Across the sugar cane field?" Mami laughed.

"Yeah, trough there." Nick complained as the elevator reached ground floor.


	12. Chapter 12

Don't startle the Witch chapter 12

"Everyone just head to the sign!" Nick shouted, everyone somehow getting separated in the massive sugar cane field, the sugar cane stalks easily taller than Ellis; the tallest of the group.

Homura and Madoka managed to get caught together, Nick, Ellis, and Mami sticking together in an organized group, while Rochelle and Sayaka stayed together, Sayaka thinking about cutting down the stalks, but decided not to, as she might need her sword strength for another moment. The eight survivors hastily, but confusingly climbed through the sugar cane field, the gas station finally in their sight. The gas prices skyrocketing to nearly twenty dollars per gallon.

"Jesus Christ, we actually made it." Nick said, very surprised.

"Woo! Let's gas up and get back." Ellis excitedly announced.

"Hello? Anyone here?" Rochelle called out, Sayaka looking through the tinted glass windows.

"Hey! Anyone in there?" Sayaka asked, banging on the glass.

"I guess nobody's home." Nick figured and kicked the door open, the sounds of weaker glass shattering from the steel frame. "Then let's just make it ours."

Everyone went inside, realizing that all of the gas remaining was already in the fill-it-yourself gas containers, enough for everyone to grab one.

"All right y'all." Coach began. "We need to get this gas back to Virgil."

"Yeah, let's get back to him." Rochelle agreed, an obvious connection between Coach and Rochelle.

"Aw, this day keeps getting better and better." Sayaka complained, her sword replaced by a steel crowbar, the rain outside coming down fast, hard, and nearly sideways. She watched as a few traffic cones were swept away from the rain, the zombies still having a good idea to hide under the gas pump's overhead roof.

"Eh, what the heck." Nick shrugged and blasted a zombie in the face with a close-range M-16 bullet. "The suit's already ruined. What do I care?"

"Well, I got the rear." Coach said, a hunting rifle in his hands.

"I got some up front." Rochelle suggested, AK-47 in-hand.

"I got em' basically anywhere." Ellis laughed. "Kill all sons of-"

"Ellis," Mami interrupted. "Is now the best time?"

"True, true." Ellis commented, making sure his Tactical shotgun couldn't hold any more rounds.

"Madoka and I will take lead." Homura said, not even allowing input from Madoka behind her, who tried to begin arguing, but quickly stopped as soon as she realized that arguing with Homura would be a worthless idea.

"Then I guess me and Nick here got the middle." Sayaka thought.

"Then I'll stay up front." Mami said, disregarding that her absolute favorite and least favorite people were up front.

"Al'ight." Coach began. "Here's the plan. We just need ta' follow the exact path we all started from, and that should lead us back to Virgil."

"So do what we just did. But backwards." Sayaka figured. "All right. Simple enough."

"Um, y'all… I think we got a problem with your plans here." Ellis pointed out.

"What's up?" Rochelle questioned, realizing what he thought of.

Thunder rolled loud across the vast skyline, the raindrops becoming thick and large, coming down in a blanket of water droplets, a sheet of white and blue. They watched as lightning struck a nearby part of the road beside them, the sugar care field becoming partially ablaze.

"Holy…!" Nick spoke, startled. "Let's run to that boat!"

The survivors blindly ran through the sugar cane field, Rochelle tripping over a watering pipe, diving deep into the mud, which quickly washed off in the hurricane above them. They all ran back into the elevator, breaths of relief from the partially-closed walls of the rising machine. When they approached the top, the doors opened and they walked down the three flights of stairs, glad to have the roof over their heads, even if the buildings were collapsing.

"Wow." Madoka silently cried out. "That's a lot of rain."

"Don't go worrying." Mami encouraged, a very quick glare from Homura. "Stay close to me."

The survivors grimaced at the incoming rain once again, glad to find any areas with a roofing unit overtop.

"Hey everyone! Up the ladder!" Ellis instructed, climbing a bright-yellow ladder leading up the side of a large piece of machinery beside a tanker.

Everyone did so and climbed the machine, the ladder leading to a set of haphazard walkways, broken apart and missing important pieces. They carefully treaded through the two broken mills, the sharp pieces hard to spot through the rain, Madoka feeling a sharp pain through her arm from where something sliced her.

"Hey look, there's the entrance!" Mami noticed, the words 'Ducatel sugar co.' in bold letters atop the building they entered.

"Safe house!" Coach announced, climbing into the safety of the safe room.

"Jesus Christ, the streets are floodin'." Ellis said, looking out of the steel bars of the safe house door, the rain never pausing or stopping, the pitch-white conditions outside gruesome, the rain coming harder than before and the wind constantly picking up.

"Well, we need to get every single one of these gas cans to Virgil." Mami said, making sure her weapons were loaded.

"Yeah." Sayaka agreed. "We'd kinda be stuck without him."

"Then let's move." Rochelle said and picked the lock on the safe house door, opening it with a reassuring bang.

"She's got the right ideas going here." Coach spoke, his humble and soft-spoken nature never seeming to be affected by the rain pouring overtop of them.

Madoka felt encouraged when she noticed her clothes washing to their cleaner states, the stench of zombie blood and vomit lingering, however.

"Let's get to higher ground!" Nick shouted over the rain, climbing a ladder leaning against a wall, the roof undergoing repairs before the infection struck, some of the shingles loose and missing.

Everyone did as instructed and climbed across the elevated rooftops, doing their bests to avoid the 3 and a half inch deep water.

"Hey look! There's that garage sale we passed on our way here!" Ellis noted, realizing that they were closer than they thought.

The survivors ran amonst the flooded streets, no one bothering to care if they shoes were all of too soggy.

"Playground. Half-way there." Coach noticed, the rusting child's playground they passed noticeable in the rain.

"Hey! Lights on over there!" Sayaka noticed, a light bright at the end of the block.

"Hey, safe house ahead! We're almost out of here!" Rochelle shouted, everyone eager to retain a semi-stable roof over their heads. Everyone raced into the safe house, Homura swinging the heavy door shut behind them.


	13. Chapter 13

Don't startle the Witch chapter 13

"C'mon y'all. We need to get this gas to Virgil." Coach said, doing his very best to restate the utter obvious.

"What're we supposed to signal him with?" Nick asked, annoyed by the rain.

"Ooh, how about we fire up the Burger Tank sign?" Ellis suggested.

"Ellis, that's so completely insane that it might just work." Nick spoke.

"All right then. Dock's right past the Burger Tank. Everyone ready?" Rochelle asked the Mahou Shoujo.

"I am." Mami spoke, confidence in her voice as always.

"I'm fine with getting out of here quick." Sayaka said, wringing out her hair.

"I guess I am, If you guys are…" Madoka shyly spoke.

"I'm prepared." Homura finished, a M-16 she obtained steady in her no shaking hands.

"Great. Ellis, if you would?" Rochelle asked Ellis, who opened the safe room door, a sudden breeze blowing up into the safe room, cold and harsh. Madoka and Sayaka held down their skirts, as unlike Mami and Homura, they didn't wear tights underneath.

"C'mon, let's get this thing powered up." Nick instructed, everyone stepping out of the safe house one-by-one.

Madoka stumbled as her foot slid in an unexpected mud pile, her impact softened as Mami snatched her arm, pulling her back up.

"Jesus Christ, Madoka. Not even a step out and you're already to the floor." Nick sighed.

"Hey, hey. She just hit a little mud. Good god, man. Relax a little." Ellis supported, and Nick growled silently.

"Fine, whatever. Who's got the sign mechanism?" Nick asked.

"I'll get it." Sayaka said, offering to be the one to hit the button.

"Okay then." Rochelle said, shooting at a couple of the infected surrounding them. "See the ladder over there? That leads to the roof?"

"Yeah." Sayaa responded, following Rochelle's instructions.

"At the bottom of the sign post, there should be a circuit box. Press the main power button." Coach finished.

"Okay, I'll get it." Sayaka said and ran forward, slashing any of the zombies that got in her way into halves.

Everyone followed behind her, protecting her from the other angles of attack, Homura keen on the logic. As soon as Sayaka got up, a massive hole in the roof provided a good spot to avoid.

"Okay, found it!" Sayaka shouted down to the other survivors, the sign slowing turning on. "Mashing colorful buttons actually worked! That never works!"

"Virgil, please be watching…" Coach spoke quietly, almost in a praying-type matter.

The first wave of infected came easily, none came from the dock, as they learned that zombies could easily mash your head open and eat your brains, but still fail at swimming.

"Pipe bomb, out!" Mami shouted, the pipe bomb ticking loudly and flashing a bright scarlet red. A medium-sized horde exploded in the violent shock, A spitter appearing from behind a truck post-explosion.

"Fire spit coming!" Nick warned, running out of the spitter goo's range.

"UGH! GOO!" Rochelle shouted, her feet beginning to burn from the second she stood in it.

"Now they're spittin' stuff at us? That's just insulting." Ellis said, clear out of the acid's range, bashing a common infected in the face with the blunt stock of his shotgun.

Everyone stayed inside the restaurant, hoping to find safety in cover, from both the rain overhead and zombies all around them.

"Here comes some puke!" Sayaka shouted, tossing the bile bomb she stored into the open hordes of zombies, watching a large cloud of green gas expand from the site of impact, several infected intoxicated by the stench, ending up beginning to attack themselves.

"Nice throw." Ellis complimented.

"Thanks." Sayaka spoke, wiping her hand on her sweater, hoping to get some of the smell off from holding the jar of puke directly.

"Taaaaaaaaank!" Madoka screamed, somehow getting separated from the group. Soaked from the rain, no one could tell when or if she got contricted by a smoker or not. All they saw was a young, pink-haired girl running from the all-too-familiar 900 pounds of certain death.

"Run!" Ellis shouted, then paused. "Shoot! Wait, do both!"

"Light it up!" Nick announced, his M-16 quickly blazing ahead, it's remaining clips quickly disappearing, Homura unable to supply more ammo or guns.

Madoka dove forward, nearly missing the swing by the Tank, her body deep in the rainwater. She quickly tried to use the rainwater supplied to her advantage, sliding amongst the Tank's attacks. She quickly got up and barely missed another viscious swing.

"Madoka! Keep it up!" Rochelle shouted to her, the distracted Tank an easier target to hit than an attacking one.

Homura looked up in the middle of the battle, her assault rifle ejecting shells at an extraordinary rate, her doing her absolute best to protect Madoka.

"Roll left." Homura simply spoke, the silent command loud to Madoka's ears. She did as commanded and rolling her entire body to the left, barely dodging a massive fist, which hit the ground she originally stood with so much power that it pulled out a block of concrete with it's exit.

"Duck. Now." Homura continued, her M-16 assault rifle never seeming to stop. Madoka ducked as the block of concrete went flying over her head, sharp enough to decappitate another average infected behind Mami.

"Melee attack. Left side of its face." Homura finished, Madoka taking a hard crowbar swing to the side of the Tank's face, blood exploded from the puncured skin, the Tank falling hard backwards, crushing a unsuspecting group of infected behind it.

Homura walked calmly over to Madoka and offered her hand.

"Come on. You've done a lot. Let's get you back up." Homura spoke, bringing Madoka to her feet.

"T-thanks." Madoka stumbled with her speaking, releasing she had done it again. Killed it. A tank, none the less. That had been almost 3 Tanks she murdered.

"Impressive show y'all did over there." Coach said, impressed in Madoka and Homura.

"Just a little teamwork, that's all." Madoka spoke, scratching the back of her head, ripping a glob of mud out of her hair.

The congratulations for another Tank's death lasted no time, as another horde quickly began attacking.

"Where's boat guy? He should be here by now!" Sayaka complained, the rain never letting up, their attacks leaving them in mid-horde attack.

"I agree. Virgil should've seen us by now…" Coach agreed with Sayaka.

And they were correct. A loud boat horn echoed around the dock area as Virgil approached. He stopped at the dock and waited for the survivors.

"Come on, guys! Everyone back onto the boat!" Nick shouted, jumping aboard the ship.

"Y'all onto the boat!" Ellis shouted, never stopping to look back.

"C'mon now! Get movin'!" Coach instructed, Mami and Rochelle leaping appoard, everyone still owning a gas canister. Sayaka lept aboard the savior ship and Madoka and Homura finally arrived.

"Everyone's on! Let's go!" Rochelle said, the ship leaving the station as quickly as it could.


	14. Chapter 14

Don't startle the Witch chapter 14

"Now Virgil ain't going now further, but y'all can make it back to the bridge from here." Virgil said to the survivors once they were on land once again. The clean streets of New Orleans were littered with trash and festival beads.

"Thanks man." Ellis responded.

"You stay safe, brother." Coach spoke to Virgil.

"All right, I'm gonna see if I go help some other folks! Y'all take care now!" Virgil said before tuning his boat horn one more time before he was out of sight.

"It's been crazy getting here. And now we're at the final mile. Let's make this one count, people." Coach said, his soft and gentle voice containing the unusual form of leadership and confidence.

Madoka looked over at Homura, then back at the streets of New Orleans. Banners expanded over several buildings, a multitude of awnings around them. Sayaka nearly jumped as two US military planes flew overhead.

"Heh. Military's still here." Ellis noted.

"That's a good thing, right?" Sayaka asked, regaining a normal state-of-mind.

"That means we can get picked up. Saved." Nick explained, blasting a zombie's head off with his pistol.

"There's a bridge in the city," Coach said, pointing to a large raising bridge in the distance. "That on the other end is a massive Evacuation center. Biggest one so far."

"But how do we know how to get there?" Sayaka asked.

"We actually.. Have no clue. That's why we're just going for it." Rochelle laughed insecurely.

"Maybe we can find our Witch along the way." Mami said, thinking that the Witch would have it's most power in what used to be a very populated area.

"Maybe, I guess." Ellis went, unsure of how to respond, not knowing if it would even be here.

"Well, how do y'all know if it's close?" Coach asked, curious of the Puella magi's powers.

"Our rings," Mami said, raising her hand for everyone to see her ring with the topaz gem inside. "They'll light up brighter and brighter the closer we are."

"Ah, all right." Nick agreed. "Heck, I've had so much happen to me over a span on two and half days, I'll take anything right about now."

"Well, our rings aren't glowing, and your bridge is a distance away. How about we get moving." Homura suggested, the pump shotgun she wielded ready to fire.

"Yeah, she's got a good idea with that. No one's reaching the bridge just standing here." Nick spoke up, agreeing with Homura's idea.

So the survivors set out into the city of New Orleans, a overturned semi-truck blocking the path of empty cars, a corner restaurant's windows either missing or boarded up with thin pieces of wood. The tables and chairs were upturned, a man in the corner, dead; a small machete in his nonliving hands. A large blood stain stained the way straight down to his location, him obviously hitting the wall before dying and collapsing there. A side street remains unscathed, a couple zombies doing what appeared to be wrestling each other.

"Hey, weapons over here!" Nick shouted from a small storage room that was still open in the back of the restaurant.

Inside was a small Submachine and a police baton, no blunter than a stick.

"I'm gonna beat something to death with nightstick." Ellis spoke, happily.

Everyone took their picks of a nightstick and SMG, and then left the cramped storage room to the open area behind the restaurant, leading to another, larger restaurant with a more professional kitchen.

Madoka opened the door to the second Restaurant, them obviously loving frying foods, as frying pans were everywhere.

"Gonna Bonk some heads in with this one." Nick said, grabbing a pan.

"Spang!" Ellis exclaimed, imitated the noise it made when he got one.

"No one better make a crack about me being in the kitchen." Rochelle spoke as she herself took a frying pan. Coach stayed with his twin pistols, however.

Madoka looked down at her bent Crowbar and then at one of the five remaining pans.

"I'd take the pan, Madoka. More fun to kill stuff with." Ellis laughed.

Madoka agreed without saying a word and replaced the two weapons.

"I'll hold onto these pills." Nick spoke, grabbing a cartridge half-full with pain pills.

The survivors opened the large wooden doors leading to the seating area of the restaurant, only to be caught off guard very quickly.

"ONE OF THOSE CHARGING THINGS!" Rochelle shouted, the Charger quickly plowing through the survivors and taking hold of Ellis.

"He's got me!" Ellis shouted, struggling to escape the Charger's grip, it beginning to smash him into the concrete floor. "Shoot the charger, man! SHOOT THE CHARGER!"

The Charger's grip loosened as it fell over to the floor, blood exploded from it's face, a very clear buckshot to it's head. Ellis looked at Homura, her shotgun still smoking.

"All right, thanks." Ellis said, getting up off the ground.

"Hold up, y'all." Coach said, noticing something in the distance. A car glowed with a faint orange light. "That'ne's got an alarm on it. Don't go touching it."

Everyone did as instructed and weaved themselves and their gunfire away from the car, the red door of the safe house clearly in sight.

"There's the safe room! Everyone inside!" Rochelle shouted, making sure everyone was inside before she locked the metal door shut.

"How are you liking New Orleans?" Homura asked Kyuubey, her and it hidden away in a bunker above the saferoom.

"I could be better." Kyuubey responded. "And how are you holding up?"

Homura didn't respond, more simply glared.

"The Witch we're searching for is in the city, isn't it?" Homura asked, silently.

"Yes. It's hidden on the bridge, the location everyone below us is all of too eager to reach." Kyuubey responded. "Your powers as a Puella magi allow you to stop and rewind time, but not make it go any faster forward."

Homura stood up from her sitting position, tempted to shoot at the incubator in front of her.

"Shooting at me will not result in any good." Kyuubey spoke, not even remotely frightened of the pistol aimed at his face. Homura lowered the pistol and walked away.

"Have fun surviving in New Orleans, incubator." She said, and left the bunker.

Rochelle was the first one to notice Homura walked down the stairs, and instantly got suspicious.

"What's up there?" Rochelle asked.

"Nothing. Just a couple wooden boards and boxes that have nothing in them." Homura spoke up a lie.

"Ah, well." Coach said and shrugged. "Not everywhere has something in it."

"Well, if y'all are ready…" Ellis spoke up, eager to open the door and fight more zombies.

"Fine, open it." Nick said and took a heavy breath of mixed releif and uncertainty.

The door swung open and Ellis ran out, the survivors following close behind.

"Throwing a Molotov!" Ellis shouted, throwing the ablaze jar of alchohol into the zombie hordes. A good chunk of them were watched as they were burned alive, others knowing best to avoid the flames.

"Nice throw." Mami complimented.

"Thanks." Ellis said, watching the flames die down.

The flames finally stopped and revealed a large stairway to what looked like a large park area.

"We can cut through this park." Coach instructed, and walked up the stairs to the park.

Ellis followed behind, and felt a blunt pain go through his arm as what appeared to be an armored police officer was infected, and wacked him with his nightstick.

"Seriously? Now they're bulletproof?" Ellis complained, and bashed it's head in as hard as he could, and it still attacked.

Coach shot it in the back, where I's bulletproof armor was at a lack of, and it fell over dead.

"Y'all gotta shoot em' in the back if you want em' dead!" Ellis instructed, now aware of how to deal with the armored zombies.

The survivors all met up in the middle of a large courtyard, and Ellis looked up at a statue of a man on a horse.

"Man, I wish I had a horse right now. I love horses." Ellis spoke.

"Ever try horse? Mmm. Tasty." Nick responded, entirely shattering Ellis's good mood.

"Dude, not cool. Like seriously. No." Ellis said, aggravated by Nick's response.

"Hey, when you're done complaining, we got some guns here." Mami said, picking up a 12-gauge fully automatic Tactical shotgun.

"I'll take one of those." Coach said, the shotgun comfortable in his hands, Ellis taking another of the remaining guns, Homura taking the last one.

"Hey, exit's over here-" Sayaka began, but was quickly stopped when she felt a Smoker's long tounge wrap around her thin body, the tounge already catching her arms. Unable to fight back, she cried for help.

"Smokin' one!" Coach said and ran up to the smoker, blasting an entire 32 pellets into the smoker's face. The infected did as normal and exploded into a massive cloud of smoke, the tounge cut and Sayaka freed. She began to complain about how she had smoker spit all over her body, but then she remembered how she had walked through a swamp, been covered in blood, acid, and rained on, exceedingly hard; so she stopped.

"Gate's over there. Let's go that way." Homura suggested, pointing over to the exit gate of the park.

"Good idea." Coach agreed, reloading the empty shells into his shotgun.

The eight survivors walked out into the street once again, a large spraypaint graffiti saying 'Where is CEDA?', a small tent to the left of an alleyway.

"Ooh, grabbin' first aid." Ellis noticed, and grabbed one of the bright-red first aid kits under the tent.

"I got this other one." Homura said, and adjusted the first aid kit to better fit on her back.

"I think we need to go down this way." Coach pondered, the alleyway leading to an area not accessable by the road, as a large gate was put up, but the gate protecting the alleyway was torn open, obviously a group of infected's attempts to escape, which succeeded, opening the gate for both the living and clean and for the living and infected.

Mami looked over into the horde of zombies and noticed a medium sized one.

"Anyone got a bomb?" Mami silently asked.

"Here." Sayaka said and gave Mami a Molotov. Mami quickly lit the Molotov tip from the muzzle flash of a pistol, and tossed it into the horde. The horde didn't expect it coming and burned all in a spectacular inferno.

"Ha, what a throw." Sayaka said, amazed at how much work she didn't need to do then.

The flames subdued and then all noticed a trailer that very specifically said CEDA on the side. The trailer was made out of a sturdy metal and bulletproof glass, which was fairly secure for the survivors. They all ran in and closed the door behind them, to notice another door leading past a fence.


	15. Chapter 15

Don't startle the Witch chapter 15

"Warning." Mami read a poster aloud. "Alarm will sound if trailer is exited before clearance from tower."

"Okay, as soon as those doors open, everyone get ready to run to that tower." Nick instructed, pointing to a large radio tower ahead.

"Hold up, wait. Why're we running to the tower?" Ellis asked, somehow confused.

"We run to the tower, and go turn off the alarm." Nick answered, with a tone of 'is this guy serious?'.

"Oh, ah. All right. Let's go then." Ellis said, not noticing Nick whack his entire face with his open palm behind him.

Madoka looked over at the table inside, a couple bottles that were full of main pills, and a large syringe-type item that said 'Adreneline- 3 ounces'.

"Adrenaline?" Madoka pondered. "Isn't this that stuff that makes you all hyper?"

"Yeah, you got it." Coach answered, an obvious knowing of the human body and its chemical changes, being a football coach, after all.

"So yeah, it's a shot with the hyper stuff inside." Nick said, trying to be as simplistic as possible, which made Madoka feel like a third-grader, which she didn't care for.

Ellis opened the door leading past the fence but didn't step out, as he knew an alarm would sound. He took an already existing Adrenaline shot he obtained and popped the protective cap off. The needle inside was thin but sharp, and Madoka looked up at him, who looked like he was going to stab himself with it. He looked back at Madoka and opened hers and gave it back.

"Do like I do, all right?" Ellis asked, Madoka nodding in response.

Madoka watched as Ellis stabbed himself in the leg with the shot, she herself doing the safe, flinching horribly as the needle punctured the skin of her upper thigh. She felt the entire world around her quickly fade into silence, her body filled with an unnecessary amount of energy. Her and Ellis stepped outside and the alarm rang, nearly silent to her ears, however. She felt herself run faster than she had ever ran before, the adrenaline shot doing it's job well of hyping her up. But she felt the effects begin to reverse themselves halfway down the fenced corridors that lead to the tower. Her vision darkened to it's original state, she felt exceedingly tired very suddenly, and the alarm reached it's full pitch, hurting her ears to listen.

"Woo, effects are weird when they fade, now aren't they?" Ellis asked, noticing the rest of the survivors doing their bests at keeping up, as they were not amazingly energized as Madoka and Ellis were. Her body began to feel heavier, and she could barely hold up her frying pan.

"Don't worry, the bad effects only last a second or two." Ellis re-encouraged, blasting several incoming infected with his shotgun, obviously his body reacting much more safely than Madoka's.

Madoka covered her ears as they approached the radio tower, the loud alarm seeming louder now.

"Up the ladder." Ellis said, staying at ground floor to make sure she didn't get in trouble from the bottom up.

Madoka climbed the two sets of ladders and reached the final balcony, where a large orange-and-black button rested. She mashed the button with her hand and heard the alarm stop.

She looked down at the weapons left up on the balcony. A sniper rifle. Homura would like that. And a new Spas-12 shotgun. Mami would like that. Along with a machete. Sayaka would love that.

She grabbed all three of the weapons and struggled back down the ladders. All of the survivors met her back at the bottom of the tower, Madoka passing the assorted Puella magi their weapons.

"Sweet." Sayaka said, tossing her used crowbar to the ground to replace it with the machete.

Mami accepted the new weapon with a happy emotion and Homura did as well, her best attempt at emotion in general.

"Woo." Nick breathed heavy. "You missed one heck of a slaughterhouse over there."

"I'd imagine." Ellis said, patting Nick on the shoulder. "Are we about ready to go?"

"Give me a minute. I'm gonna heal." Coach said, wrapping up a bloody wound in gauze, his face enduring the pain from the alcohol.

"You good now?" Mami asked.

"Yeah, I'll be fine now." Coach responded, taping the gauze shut.

"All right, let's head through that bus station." Nick suggested, noticing a nearby evac that had been emptied out of all supplies already.

"Sure thing." Sayaka said, ready for anything, so long as she had a new blade or weapon to beat the guts out of a zombie.

The survivors walked through the empty evac center, a couple bodies rotting away on the floor.

"Ugh," Sayaka said and plugged her nose. "The bunch of dead bodies back by the trailer apparently wasn't bad enough…"

"Hey, I remember that. I mean, like none of those bodies were zombies." Ellis spoke up.

"Yeah. People are shooting people now." Nick cursed.

"Maybe it was a form of self-protection." Coach suggested the idea.

"Self protection? Protection against themselves. What's this world coming to?" Nick continued.

"Well, I think I see a safe house down the street there." Mami said, looking out into the distance.

Coach looked where Mami pointed and recognized the area.

"That freeway heads straight to our bridge." He said, refocusing on the goal at hand instead of the way the world is turning out. "Let's head there."

Mami and Coach were the first in the saleroom, and then were accompanied by the other survivors after a moment or two.

"Okay, if THAT was their idea of Safety, I cannot wait to see what's out here." Nick said with obvious sarcasm hidden in his voice.

"What've we got in here?" Sayaka asked, scanning the room's weapons table for anything of use. "Assault rifle, shotgun, machete…" She said, not knowing the proper names for the M-16 and Tactical shotgun.

"Well, is everyone her ready?" Homura asked everyone, double checking of their lack of confidence. When they all slowly raised their hands or responded, Homura opened the door outside, instantly blasting a zombie's head to bloody specs with her sniper rifle, bashing another's head open with a hard hit to its forehead with the butt of the rifle. Everyone was frightened of her, as she had killed both in mere milliseconds of each other, not even bothering to turn her head or even aiming to do both. The survivors allowed Homura to lead, as of sheer fright. She didn't run at all. She calmly walked, using her sniper rifle almost like a shotgun, never using the scope, her purple eyes never seeming to blink. She left some of the weaker zombies for the others, frail enough to just blow on and they'd die.

"Obviously she knows what she's doing." Coach whispered to Nick.

"You think so?" He answered, sarcastically.

"Road's blocked." Homura said, noticing a large recreational vehicle blocking the road. "Let's try the apartment there."

"Sure thing." Ellis said, running up the stairs to the apartment's balcony, happy to get actually moving instead of watching Homura kill all of them. Ellis cleaned out the apartment of infected and stepped back outside to see the others. He banged the stock of his shotgun on the wood three times and got everyone's attention.

"All clear?" Mami asked, and Ellis nodded.

"All right then, let's get moving." Coach said, and ran up the stairs, checking the supplies inside.

"Pipe bomb, anybody?" Coach asked, pulling a pipe bomb out of a closet.

"I'll take that." Mami said, clipping the bomb to her bullet belt, which was falling apart.

The survivors cleaned the house of supplies.

"Let's do collection." Rochelle suggested.

"A bottle and a half of pills." Coach answered.

"2 shots." Ellis said, passing one of the adrenaline shots to Madoka, who nervously held onto it.

"A pipe bomb and two Moltovs." Mami said.

"Defribulator." Sayaka said, partially surprised she said the word correctly.

"That it?" Nick asked everyone, who had easily cleared out the entire apartment.

"Appears to be." Homura finished.

"Hey Homura." Nick began.

"Yes?" She questioned.

"Y'all wanna leave some for the rest of us? The zombies." He questioned. "Me and Ellis are going kinda nuts back here."

Homura gave him a short, evil glare, but when she noticed Madoka behind them, she stopped and put her arm out, signaling for them to go ahead of her.

"Really?" Ellis asked, and Homura nodded. "Gee, thanks a lot."

The survivors continued onwards, Ellis and Mami leading instead of Homura, whom stood near the back of the group for long-range protection.

"Let's go this here way." Coach said, finding a small passageway around a large CEDA barricade, along with a couple weapons.

"Yo, Ellis!" Coach called out, lifting up a large Chainsaw.

"Dude, are you gonna take that?" Ellis asked, imagining the bloody and completely fantastic feel of being a horror movie survivor, slashing things to shreds.

"All yours, man." Coach passing the hefty Chainsaw to Ellis, Ellis exchanging it for his pain pills, which Coach needed.

"What else we got here?" Rochelle asked, sneaking her head into the open area to see the table of supplies.

"Grabbing a shot!" Nick announced, sliding the adrenaline shot into his pocket, Madoka shivering thinking about the effects of the adrenaline, the mark on her leg still visible on her bare skin.

"Let's head that direction." Mami said, pointing to a trailer beside a house with very visible stairs leading to an open door.

"Sure." Sayaka said. "I'll check the house."

"I'll get the trailer." Rochelle said, the two separating into the separate directions, Rochelle clearing out the inside of the trailer, Sayaka plain out clearing. Ellis getting a good laugh when a zombie decided to be thrown out an open window.

"We're clear." Sayaka and Rochelle said, nearly at the same time.

"All right people, trailer first." Coach instructed, checking the possibility of a small armory inside the mobile home.

"Let's check." Nick said, stepping outside after a small scavenge.

"Two pistols." Rochelle said, holding up the two handguns for anyone to take. Homura stole the two guns from her possession.

"Adrenaline." Ellis said, holding it for anyone to take. No one took it, so he kept it.

"Incendiary ammunition." Mami said, putting it on the ground. "Shall I open it?"

"After all call." Nick said. "Is that it?"

"Seems like it." Coach said, shrugging.

"All right, Mami, bust it open." Nick instructed.

Mami pressed the button on the side, and like a bunch of flies to honey, the gun operating survivors rushed into the box of fire-based ammunition. When they were all loaded, Madoka and Sayaka both were glad they didn't use firearms, as it was already all gone.

"Come on, I cleared out the house." Sayaka said, forcing her machete to remain straight with her hand, pushing on the bent blade.

"Yeah, let's check up there." Mami spoke, her calm attitude similar to Coach's.

The survivors entered the room and shined their flashlights around, noticing all of the blood splattered on the walls, still fresh, as it dripped down. The survivors disregarded the bloodstains, and continued onward.

They escaped through a fairly large hole in the side of a room, and were amazed at a couple of houses that were burned to a crisp around them, their thin and fraile skeletal frames showing.

"Geez, what happened here?" Rochelle asked, startled by the burned houses.

"Can't exactly say it's accidental." Coach said. "A controlled burn. Probably th' City's way to clean 'em out."

"First it's people shooting other people, now it's people Burning other people?" Madoka asked, scared to see what's next.

"Sure seems like that." Mami said.

"Hey, looks like part of that building's still standing." Sayaka said, pointing to a building which had only the first quarter of it burnt.

"That's a good sign." Rochelle agreed.

"What's up there?" Nick asked, noticing a set of stairs going upstairs, which was still standing.

"I'll see. You all inspect downstairs." Homura instructed, obviously only half of the survivors listened. Coach, Madoka, and Sayaka came up with her, while Nick, Rochelle, Ellis, and Mami stayed downstairs.

"Do those hash marks mean what I think they mean?" Coach asked, shining his flashlight onto a crudely done drawing of two stick figures, one with no face with seven marks underneath it, and one with red eyes and sharp teeth with nearly 16 marks underneath.

"Alive to infected ratio." Homura said, answering Coach's question.

"That's almost sickening." Sayaka said, grabbing herself a new machete, which were apparently plentiful around New Orleans.

"What did y'all find up there?" Ellis asked, looking up a massive hole in the ceiling, which led directly to the second floor.

"Grenade." Homura said, tossing down the grenade launcher to Ellis.

"Oh my god it's Christmas!" Ellis said, dropping the shotgun he previously owned, thinking nothing of the incendiary bullets inside.

"Anything else?" Rochelle asked.

"Nothing we don't already own or need." Homura responded, tossing a pipe bomb to Madoka after obtaining one herself.

"Any more bombs?" Mami asked.

"Here." Homura said, tossing down a bottle of boomer bile. "Have vomit."

Mami gave one of hr rare silent glares, the tension between her and Homura stronger than normal.

"Well, come on down when y'all are done." Nick instructed, watching the area outside for the infected.

Madoka watched as Homura positioned herself with her Sniper rifle, the scoped lens veiwing out into the distance outside.

"Homura…?" Madoka began to question, but was interrupted by the immense sound of her unsilenced sniper.

Nick below finched as he heard the noise, about ready to yelled at her for whatever she was shooting at. But before he could be alerted by the sniper's blast, a smoker crashed to the ground, the smoke trail falling from a third story building beside them. So Nick shut up.

The survivors proceeded to walk amongst the buildings, inside the collapsing frames to escape around the barriers.

"Huh." Ellis said, noticing a lack of entrances except one. "I guess we gotta head through the sewer here."

"No. I am not. AM NOT- Ah, fine. Let's go." Nick said, and jumped down into the murky water. Everyone else followed, as they were used to the swamps. Water couldn't get any thicker than that.

"Hey, look! I found a way out!" Ellis said, a ladder hardly visable in the distance, the sun from the opened sewer grate the only thing aware of it's existence.

Ellis went up first and froze.

"You know what would be really bad right now?" He asked, everyone else freezing as they saw the massive parking lot full of parked cars, everyone one of them glowing with car alarms waiting to be triggered. "A Tank."


	16. Chapter 16

Don't startle the Witch chapter 16

"All right, y'all. Just watch your footin' and your fire." Coach instructed. "Any noise cant set these off. And car alarms in a zombie appocolypse sure ain't good."

Everyone understood the dangers of triggering a car alarm and scanned the impound lot, the cars in no actual proper order, some in the middle of the street, one overlapping another. The street was hazardous and one improper attack could put them all in jeopardy.

Madoka stayed close to Mami, feeling like she could trust her the best, in case she stumbled. Sayaka was with Homura, Coach was with Rochelle, Ellis with Nick. They all separated and tried their best to avoid their fire towards the attacking infected and not the cars, all hard to when everyone's except Sayaka and Madoka's weapons scattered their fire.

"Hey, help! Help!" Ellis cried out, him laying on the floor, an obvious puddle of blood expanding from around him, him firing off his emergency pistol at the attacking infected, unable to get up on his own. He was incapacitated, and couldn't do it on his own.

"Heh, you look pretty funny down there on the ground. C'mon, let's get you up." Rochelle said, assisting Ellis to his feet, him obviously gone out and took some pretty good damage.

"Were you crying?" Mami asked him, coming closer to his location.

"No, I weren't crying. I was just sweatin'. Through my eyes." Ellis answered, obvious sarcasm in his voice. "Y'all ready to watch my do something really stupid?"

"Ellis, what're you up to…?" Rochelle began to question.

"Wububububub." Ellis shook his head around as his adrenaline shot was injected into his leg, giving him a temporary health boost, and speed boost. Madoka and Mami stayed close behind the rushing Ellis, Madoka aware of the effects of adrenaline and how to deal with it. The trio rushed through the field of alarmed cars, stopping at the ladder that led up to the freeway they needed.

"C'mon, y'all! We're waiting for ya!" Ellis yelled out, the adrenaline shot wearing off.

"We… We kind of got our hands full here." Nick struggled the answer, as infected swarmed around him, no partner to protect him.

"I'm down!" Nick yelled as the infected brought him to the incapacitated state, not stopping their attack.

Sayaka ran to Nick's location and slashed off as many heads as she could, but she got there too late. Nick laid there on the ground, his hands cold and his heart unseating.

"Nick!" Coach yelled, running over to Nick's dead body.

"Ooh, wait!" Sayaka shouted, remembering the defibulator she found in the town. "I hope I know how to use this!"

Sayaka brought the defibulator paddles to Nick's chest and pressed the buttons. "Clear!"

Blue sparks jolted from Nick's body as he swung upright.

"JESUS CHRIST!" He shouted, grasping at his chest. "What was that!?"

"Gee, you're welcome too." Sayaka joked, tossing the defibulator aside, it out of energy.

Nick rebut toned his shirt as he got up, realizing that they made it all the way through the impound lot. No alarms sounded.

"Wow, we actually made it." Nick said, his hair still partially standing on end, charred.

"Hey, that leads right to our bridge!" Ellis exclaimed, noticing the freeway they stood on. "We're gonna make it outta here-"

Ellis's statement was cut short as a military plane flew overhead, one of its bombs landing square on the freeway they stood on, exploding nearly thirty feet ahead.

"Well, I guess we're not going that way." Madoka said, the smoke exploding from the blast site.

"Let's check this out." Mami suggested, opening up the back doors of an ambulance still standing on the road.

"I got chest paddles." Sayaka said, an almost evil glare in her eyes, which freaked out Madoka.

"Grabbin these pills." Nick said, realizing he left all of his materials at his death site. "And this rifle." He spoke, grabbing an assault rifle from the back.

"We all got something," Rochelle said, noticing everyone except Madoka had pills or an adreneline shot. "Madoka, you want a shot?"

Madoka shakily took the needle and clipped it to her outfit. She couldn't stick it in her mind if she hated the shot or loved it, as her feelings and the adreneline's feelings contradicted each other.

"So where do we go now?" Nick asked, trying to think of a way around the massive crater in the ground.

"We might need to go through that graveyard down there." Mami said, pointing down to a cemetery down below, the explosion making enough rubble to form a small hill above the ground, just barely safe enough to descend on.

"Dude, imagine if these here were real zombies?" Ellis pondered. "Then walking through this graveyard would mean like, death."

"Hey Ellis," Coach said, whacking Ellis' shoulder to get his attention. "A good friend of mine has someone you'ld get along really well with. Ever heard of him? He's named Francis-"

"Coach, is now really the time?" Sayaka asked, impatiently.

"Fine, good point."

"Tank." Homura spoke silently, somehow getting on top of an overturned semi-truck trailer, viewing the field with her sniper rifle. "378 yards from here."

"How did you even get up there?" Rochelle asked, as the ledges of the road had been mostly destroyed as well.

Homura didn't answer, more got down off the truck, and jumped down into the field of infected.

"Well, I guess we're going down there, then." Ellis said, jumping down, sliding down the debris pile.

"Ladies first." Nick excused, gesturing out for one of the Puella magi to go first. Instead, Sayaka whacked Nick in the back and watched him nearly fall over, so he jumped down. One by one, the survivors landed into the open field, killing every infected they spotted, keeping a keen eye out for the Tank Homura forwarned of.

Slowly but surely, they walked their way through the park, the steady groups of infected gladly escorted by the plenty of Molotovs and pipe bombs.

"Where's this Tank?" Coach asked. "I'm a football coach, I know my distances. So where is it?"

Madoka froze when she heard heavy breathing and a mix of growling. "Tank."

"Where?" Mami asked, looking around, not knowing what happened next. She spat out blood as the tank's massive hand punched her square in the gut, sending her flying.

"Taaaaaaaank!" Rochelle shouted. "Fire it up!"

"Help me!" Mami cried out, surpised that she herself was incapacitated, despite her magical body. She herself weren't bleeding as much as Nick did, but she was still bleeding.

"DIE!" Ellis shouted as he jammed his revving chainsaw deep into the Tank's skin, the massive infected's blood splattering everywhere.

The Tank tried to pull the chainsaw out of it's back, but alas, its upper body was much too large, so it continued to dig deeper.

"Don't stop, don't stop!" Nick shouted, not feeling like being revived twice in a matter of minutes.

Homura managed to sneak up behind it as Ellis went flying throughout the door, nearly juggled onto a steel fence. She silently repositioned her sights and Madoka managed to see that rare glimmer that sometimes appeared in Homura's eyes, which meant she was very precise with what she was doing. The Tank turned around just in time to get Homura's signature 'face splitter'. 5 solid shots through the entire head, the Tank's blood splattering everywhere as it's head nearly exploded. It reched towards its own face in utter agony as Homura wanted to make sure it died. The remaining 25 shots in the clip emptied onto the Tank's upper body.

"I would like some assistance, thank you!" Mami cried out, feeling her vision begin to darken. Which was never a good sign.

Nick stumbled over to Mami and helped her up, his first aid kit open.

"Here, let me patch you up. You're not exactly looking your best." Nick said, wrapping the bandages around her stomach, which was bleeding very noticeably.

"That was CRAZY, man!" Ellis said, holding his shoulder, which obviously got harmed in the battle.

"They're definitely getting harder to beat." Homura said, dropping an empty clip beside what remained of the Tank's head. "They're mutating."

"Well, gee. I sure ain't no zombie-ologist, but I gotta agree with her." Ellis said, responding to Homura.

"Hey Ellis," Nick began. "Wouldn't it be really bad if your buddy Keith was a zombie?"

"Hey, y'all might wanna watch your tounge, 'cause he was one of the first ones on them there wirleycopters." Ellis argued.

"Well, in case everyone's done argueing about this," Madoka said, pointing to the exit. "I think the safe house is right up there."


End file.
